Make It
by Ronadir
Summary: A fic going covering the game almost day-by-day from Souji and Chie's perspective, their views and thoughts on everything as the story unfolds, and of each other. Discontinued in late 2014, picked it up again August 2015.
1. Introduction

_INTRODUCTION CREATED ON _**14/8/2014**_,_ _AFTER CHAPTER SEVEN,UPDATED _**6/8/2015**_, AFTER CHAPTER ELEVEN_

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Welcome to my first legitimate venture into longfic territory!

This fic was originally intended to be a full novelisation of the game from Souji and Chie's perspective, but following some life events I discontinued it, concluding it at Chapter 8. After a long time, I decided to jump back into it with a new, different kind of resolve.

This fic is told not only from the usual point of view of the main character Souji. Half of it is by Chie - as this fic is told from both their perspective -switching between them to see their thoughts on the story's events and of course - each other.

A large portion of the dialogue that you'll be reading are taken directly from the original game, in my OCD insistence to keep them as in-character as possible. I expanded upon it with plenty of inner thoughts plus original dialogue and interactions so it's not boring, so please don't worry.

As you can already tell when you clicked on this, it's Souji/Chie. As is always the case with Souji, everyone has their own interpretation of him. I didn't like the overly-professional pimpmaster they went with in the anime (worse - it's _official_), so this one's more subdued and is definitely humanly flawed. Originally, I wanted to focus more on his past of always moving and changing his life, along the same line as my old and dearly-cherished first fic, Matching Wristbands. BUT! As time went on, I think I ended up focusing more on him struggling with the responsibility of the Wildcard here - Present, rather than past.

Thanks for all the support, reviews and follows! Spread the Chie/Souji love! Thanks again for checking this fic out!

Now, please relax and enjoy the story.

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**Old summaries (From newest to oldest):**

_My possible last long-term venture into fanfiction is a longer, better-written sequel to my very first fic - Matching Wristbands. It tells the story of the first few days in the game from both Souji and Chie's perspective, along with how their relationship would blossom quickly from that short time, foreshadowing their unseen future as a couple. Souji/Chie to the max._

_A near-full novelisation of Persona 4 - with a Souji/Chie twist! Told from both Souji and Chie's view, this VLF (Very Long Fic) explores their budding relationship in Inaba and their quest to solve the murder mystery. This Souji however is reluctant, even afraid to answer his destiny's call, fearing the responsibility. However, destiny - and love - never asks for your permission..._

_A fic covering Chie and Souji's budding yet uncertain relationship during that year in Inaba. Souji may look the part of a perfectly nice guy, but beneath the surface is a life too shaped by separation and shallow bonds to ever allow anyone in again. He didn't choose Inaba. He didn't choose Chie Satonaka. He will, in time, and against his own expectations - come to love both._


	2. Happen - ARC I, Chapter 1

**ARC 1: Make It Happen**

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The desk beside Chie had been empty for a good few weeks now. The last person to sit on it was a girl named Tanakawa: bespectacled, not particularly cheerful or quiet, and was a top student of the class, second only to Chie's friend Yukiko. Though she had been sitting next to Tanakawa since the start of the year, Chie never really got to knew her. She'd always had been too busy studying to speak or hang out, and before Chie knew it, she transferred to some boarding school.

Looking at that empty desk beside her jogged that memory, as Chie rested her head on her hand, supporting herself on one elbow. The class had been busy chattering about the new transfer student that was coming in from the city. She overheard some girls gossiping about him - confirmed to be a him - speculating on whether he'd be cute or not. Chie didn't really bother, and her friend Yukiko in front of her cared even less.

Still, she wouldn't lie - it _did_ cross her mind that if this possibly cute transfer student were to sit anywhere for the rest of her years at school, it'd be right next to her. She brushed away the thought - even if this cute transfer student sat next to her, he wouldn't notice her anyway. Given that he'd have to pass by Yukiko to reach her, that was a done guarantee.

Chie looked straight ahead at Yukiko's back, the light coming from the windows reflecting off her long hair - giving off a lovely sheen. She's almost ethereal in how pretty she looks that sometimes even Chie has to realise it, despite all her years of knowing Yukiko since they were kids. It's no wonder all the boys have their eyes on her, considering that really weird and creepy Amagi Challenge they came up with.

_She'd catch his sights the moment he enters the room!_ Chie thought, her sigh followed by a little smile, unseen by her friend. She wondered when Yukiko would just go and pick someone to be her boyfriend already, but knowing her, it'd sure take a while.

She turned her attention to a boy sitting behind her, looking utterly drained, slumped on his desk like a used rag.

"A transfer student from the city… Just like you, huh Yosuke?" said Chie.

All Chie hears is a dragged-out groan in response.

"Huh? You look dead today," she said, trying to discern if he even understood what she had said.

"Yeah, um… I don't wanna talk about it…" came Yosuke's voice, strained.

His sorry condition seemed to have caught Yukiko's attention, who turned around to inspect.

"What's with him?" said Chie.

"Who knows?" replied Yukiko, in a tone that was completely innocent and yet disparately unconcerned about Yosuke's state of well-being.

"Awright, shut your traps!" yelled the homeroom teacher from the front of the class, reminding Chie of the terrible fate she and her two friends have been thrown to. Out of all the faculty, they had to be stuck with Mr. Morooka as homeroom teacher. Loud, obnoxious and generally unpleasant, Morooka was unofficially voted the least popular member of the teaching staff, and was dubbed King Moron by the students. While many of Yasogami High's teacher's were pretty loopy, they mostly meant well and were fully capable as educators.

Mr. Morooka, however, was the reason Chie and her fellow classmates ponder the reason why anyone would pick a line of work they were so ridiculously _unhappy _to be in. While Morooka was going on about nothing important, Chie passed the time wondering whether Yosuke had brought the copy of _Trial of the Dragon_ that she lent him, until finally the man got around to introducing the transfer student. And as if by cue, in the transfer student walked.

His jacket was unbuttoned, his collar was popped up, and his hair was a lustrous silver - but oddly enough, his demeanour didn't fit his otherwise outlandish appearance. He seemed really calm and collected, and even had a very non-threatening vibe about him - approachable, even. It juxtaposed really weirdly against his gangsterly way of dress.

_This oughta be interesting…_ thought Chie, trying to ignore the fact that she noticed all that about him and he hadn't even been in the class long enough to introduce himself. She tapped Yukiko's shoulder, and she leaned back, still looking forward at the transfer student as everyone else was.

"That's one weird-looking transfer student, huh?" she whispered.

"He does look… interesting," Yukiko whispered back in tentative thought before sitting forward again.

Agreeing, Chie leaned back into her seat. What she had neglected to say to Yukiko, and instead had kept to herself, was the thought of _Well, they were right. He is pretty cute…_ that she promptly shooed away.

"Nice to meet you all," said the transfer student, his voice even, but not too monotone. His gaze, though blank, was somewhat purposeful. He didn't look lost, or even at all nervous like other transfer students would, as if he's gone through this a million times before. "I'm Souji Seta."

Chie looked at this new student while Mr. Morooka was starting up another tirade. He looked like he was scanning the class, probably for an empty seat. Feeling kinda sorry for the guy, Chie took a deep breath, pursed her lips and shot up her hand.

"Excuse me!"

Both Morooka and the transfer student, Seta, turned their attention to her. She quickly got to her point.

"Is it okay if the transfer student sits here?"

"Huh? Yeah sure," said Morooka, making a huge wave with his arm and giving a harsh point at the empty seat next to Chie. "There's yer seat, so hurry up and siddown, will ya?!"

Giving a short nod, the transfer student takes on a consistent stride towards Chie, and takes his seat next to her that was formerly Tanakawa's. Once seated, and Morooka's eyes are off him, he relaxes his shoulders and almost melts into his seat, giving off a very soft, almost inaudible sigh - like he had to let his breath out but restrained it.

For some reason, it amused Chie, so she decided she'd be nice and let him settle into this situation a little easier. She leaned a little towards him, keeping her voice low, throwing glances at Morooka to make her point. "He's the worst, huh?"

The transfer student turned at her voice. He apparently didn't notice her on his way to the seat - probably wanting to get there first over trying to look at any of his new classmates.

"Rotten luck for you to get stuck in this class… Well, looks like we'll just have to hang in there for a year."

One whole year... imagine that. Chie almost looked forward to third year already. She'd let the year whoosh by if it meant skipping Morooka's boring lectures, and if it meant skipping finals as well, then all the better. The transfer student looked like he wanted to say something in the middle of her talking, but only nodded again once she finished, same as the short nod he gave Morooka. Polite, controlled.

"Understood."

The way he said it so seriously tickled Chie a little, lightening up the terrible mood Morooka set. He said it like a soldier would, and yet also like a nervous kid getting ready for his kindergarten debut. She let that amusement show on her face, hoping that it might cheer the transfer student up and put him at ease, if only a little - to dampen the blow that this unfortunate first day of school has dealt to him.

_This guy doesn't seem all too bad at all!_

* * *

I had a lot of colourful, though unpleasant teachers in the past, but this man takes the cake.

He had a hunched back, a noticeable overbite and a bad haircut, which somehow still managed to be mere window dressing compared to his rotten personality. I had to follow him into Class 2-2, the place I'll be in for the rest of the year.

That'd be the plan, anyway. It's not unusual for my parents to suddenly say I needed to pack up and transfer again - "ahead of schedule", so to say - but I try not to think about it that way. Expecting sudden departures in such a pessimistic way isn't very healthy.

It's not healthy, though it doesn't mean it doesn't get to me.

The unpleasant homeroom teacher, Morooka, opened the door to the class and crept in. I took a little time outside the bounds of the class doorway to practice my routine. I went over my introduction.

_Nice to meet you all. I'm Souji Seta._

Simple, boring, to the point. Just the way it should. I remembered what I'm supposed to do. Don't look at anyone in particular, but don't look lost either. Don't look around on the way to your seat. Don't stand out. Though I said I practiced it, I've gotten most of it down to intuition, so it's more like I ran it quickly through my head to prep myself up. I took a breath, not too deep, and stepped in.

I made my way into the class and towards Morooka's desk. Still, despite keeping my eyes straight ahead, I hadn't even turned yet when a flash of green caught the corner of my vision.

During Mr. Morooka's non-too-favourable introduction of me, I found out the striking green colour belonged to a short-haired girl in a bright sports jacket. From what I could see, she was certainly cute, but then again, so was the girl in front of her in the red cardigan, and one girl by the window, and another near the front…

They were all cute, I decided. All of them were.

The word _were_ rang a little too loudly in my head, causing me to brush the thought off.

"Now I hate wasting my time, but I better introduce this transfer student," said Mr. Morooka. "This sad sack's been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday's garbage."

Despite my thoughts, it was really hard to ignore Morooka disparaging me in front of the whole class. I didn't want anyone to think highly of me, but taking it to its opposite extreme... well, was not exactly a welcome alternative.

"And he's just as much of a loser here as he was there, so you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on him!"

This guy was getting on my nerves.

"Tell 'em your name, kid, and make it quick."

A thought flashed onto my suggestion board for responses to say to this so-called teacher.

_You calling me a loser?_

Sure, it'd get me on his bad side for all the rest of my time here, but it doesn't really look like I need to do _much_ to tick him off anyway. So far, all I did was… come from a city. Plus... I'll only be here a year anyway.

_You calling me a loser?_

I parted my lips a little, a vindictive spark simmering in me. Part of me wanted to experiment with that first-day-of-class routine, or rather throw it out completely in this case. Maybe I'll set a domino effect in motion. Me standing up to the teacher that no doubt the rest of this class doesn't like. It breaks the ice between me and my classmates. A year is long enough to want to be on good terms with everyone, but conversely is short enough to not bother with the consequences of _not_ being on good terms with Morooka.

But then again, being on good terms with him doesn't sound likely. Nor, desirable.

_You calling me a loser?_

I decided I want to say it. I might even impress some of the people here. I can get through all the formality and get straight to normal conversation. I get to…

I get to…

_You calling me a loser?_

My vision lost focus for a moment in my glimmer of realisation. I looked forward again.

"Nice to meet you all," I said, showing a friendly smile. "I'm Souji Seta."

I guess he was, indeed, calling me a loser.

I let out a breath, deeper than usual, but not noticeable - I made sure it's not. I looked around the class, hoping to get a guess of where I'll be sitting. The only free seat was the one next to the short-haired girl in the jacket.

A little ember of hope crackled within me, even though I should know better than to let it catch fire in the first place. I let... _made_ my eyes stray to the other students. One of them, draped over the desk behind the girl, was a guy who looked like the one who crashed his bike earlier this morning.

"You better not even think of getting involved with the girls here, let alone abusing them!"

While Morooka continued his rant, another flash of green appeared. I turned my focus to the short-haired girl again, her long jacket sleeve raised.

"Excuse me! Is it okay if the transfer student sits here?"

Taking note of her, Morooka snapped at me to hurry up and take my seat. I just nodded at him - like I do to all teachers regardless - and made my way. Didn't look at anyone else, and sat down. Finally out of the class stage, I let myself relax a little and let out another breath, being careful to keep it down so nobody - not Morooka, not anybody - would noti-

"He's the worst, huh?"

I turned my attention to the somewhat familiar voice. It was the short-haired girl, her voice much softer this time. Up close... she really was cute.

"Rotten luck for you to get stuck in this class…"

_Not from where I'm sitting_, I wanted to say, but I caught myself, chiding myself for thinking up such a creepy response on the fly.

"Well, looks like we'll just have to hang in there for a year," she continued. She looked pretty concerned, but I was almost certain it was played up. She seemed like an expressive sort. _Probably just wants to break the ice and get the awkward introductions over and done with_. Because of this, I didn't pay her much heed.

I wasn't in the mood to give her a response, and this of all days would be one day where she'd understand if I didn't. Still, something flared in me, unsatisfied I couldn't stand up for myself against the homeroom teacher. In any case, I wanted people to at least be pleased by my presence, not treat me like an outcast. It's times like these that I'm thankful I somehow have this knack for coming up with appropriate (or at least not _terrible_) responses to things in record reaction time.

Whether I said them or _not_, that was a different matter - but this time, I did.

"Understood."

I was looking straight ahead, but I could see from the corner of my view that the girl was smiling at my response. It was just a little smile, but it was a nice one, warm even. It... hit me a little deeper than I would have expected it to.

It made me feel a little bad for sizing her up and making assumptions on what her personality was - and a little manipulative for hand-picking my responses, instead of just saying what was natural to say.

But hand-picking responses is the only way I've ever responded to anything. So, sorry, short-haired girl…

But I don't know any other way how. And there's no way I'd expect anyone to teach me how.

There's no way I'd let them.

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**A/N: **Hello again, fellas. I'm back with some more Persona stuff, and more Chie/Souji of course. I actually was trying to decide whether to go with his new name Yu Narukami, or stick with Souji Seta. I'm just so used to Souji as his name that I always picture the _game_ character when I use it, and thus my take of him as I both play through P4 and write fanfics depicting him. Yu is a name I connect almost exclusively with his anime depiction, which is really quite different from what I pictured, obviously.

But alas, I figured I had to get with the times, so I went with Yu. Let me know if you prefer Souji yourself, as I don't mind editing and replacing his name while it's still early.

Anyway, yeah. This fic covers the events of the game (whether the original P4 or Golden is still to be decided, as I haven't played Golden's events first-hand to really know them), and is expanded on my depiction of the main character (Souji then) in my older fic _Matching Wristbands_. At this point, I'm not sure if I'll be going with a pretty close full adaptation of the game, or just highlight certain events. We'll see.

What I'm doing here is not just exploring the dynamics of Chie and Yu's relationship, but I'll also be diving into Chie's view of both him and the events of the game, along with exploring what my take on Yu/Souji is and what his supposed blank-slate past really is, which I think is a route not many people take. The rest of the Investigation Team will definitely be there, as I like them **way** too much to make it _only_ about Chie and Yu.

Special thanks go to MirrorImage27, for writing _The Kingpin and the Carnivore_, which is my inspiration for attempting a Yu and Chie-POV story, _Open_ by Domomomo, which inspired me to cover the events of the game with a Chie/Yu-centred view, and The Unknown Warrior 11 for writing _One More Dance -_ the fic that finally made me get off my hiatus and get started on this idea (which I had since I first read the earlier fics in 2011! Note that _One More Dance_ was published this year, **2014.** :p).

Last but definitely not least, I want to thank my pal skywolf666 for her amazing story, _Together_, which is still hands-down my favourite Chie/Yu fic ever. She's my truest Chie/MC comrade. B]

**Disclaimer: **

The writing switches between Chie and MC, and may also differ between first-person and third-person view (like the 3rd-person Chie and 1st-person Yu you see in this chapter) by chapter. I ask that you forgive me if I switch too often - I'm trying to see whose mind I need to get into more, and I find first-person view easier for that. It was pretty important that Yu be written 1st-person here to show the workings of his mind, but I think from here on out Chie will be the one helming the main, more personal POV. Please bear with me as this fic is more of a spontaneous exploration than a planned-out story.

**EDIT:** So I went ahead and switched it to Souji Seta. We'll see how it holds up. I don't really mind, and I actually somewhat got used to Yu Narukami already by this point, but I'm so neutral about it by now that I figured I'd let you- the audience - decide what's comfortable for you to read.


	3. Chapter 2: What a Gal!

I was still thinking about that strange dream, even though I didn't really have any business doing so. But washing my face at the sink in the men's room, waiting for next period to start... you just get to thinking without really meaning to... or wanting to.

That Igor fellow didn't have much good to say to me, but he had plenty that was cryptic. An imminent, terrible catastrophe... mystery... a contract... He said the coming year will be a turning point in my destiny, though right now it seems like anything but, which is how it always has been. He even went on to say my future could be lost... forever, if I don't solve this "mystery".

I shouldn't be over-thinking a _dream_, but it was so vivid that it's hard to even brush off once it enters my head, then it's like I'm there all over again. I could always remember my dreams quite well, but there was no way I could remember exact lines of conversations, in such precise order. Everything about it was ridiculous, but my own instincts betrayed me. It didn't feel right.

The "contract" part got to me. He said I'll be entering one soon. It felt like a responsibility. One that I felt - almost completely certain - would be way bigger than anything I could stomach, than I could handle - that I could even begin to comprehend. It weighed too heavily. I knew nothing of it and yet I could feel its gravity - grating against me, pressing against me. "Why me?" I thought. I'm no one special.

That _second_ dream with the figure in the fog didn't help either. In fact, it made things much worse. I thought that dream with Igor would be just that - a dream - for a while, but then _this_ had to enter my REM sleep, and I remembered every sensation, every word. The disorientation from the fog... the grip of my hands against the hilt of the sword that just appeared out of nowhere... It all felt too real, and yet... too unknown.

I just hoped that this year in Inaba would go by quickly, and after today, those dreams would be kind enough to stop. If not, well...

I don't know what I'd do. And it makes my stomach cave in.

I hate not knowing.

* * *

I just saw the new guy come in just in time for today's last class. He looked pretty out of it. I guess King Moron must've got to him pretty bad, or maybe it's just that the whole first-day-of-school thing was taking its toll on him. Still, he looked calm enough. I wouldn't have noticed anything if he didn't have all that sweat on his face. Water, maybe? Yikes.

When he came in and sat down next to me, just in time for King Moron to come in and start talking, I saw that it was just water. Phew! If that was sweat he must have some _really_ nasty stress problems. I guessed he was fine, so I didn't ask him about it.

"That's all for today. Normal lectures will start tomorrow."

Eventually, King Moron finally let us go, on a non-angry note at that! I dunno why, but I feel kinda pooped today, and it's just my first day! The holidays last year must've still been hanging onto me, though all I did was just mostly watching movies and going over to Yukiko's inn for a hot springs session that one time...

I stretched my arms above me, hoping to release those endorphins I just learned about, ready to leave until the school intercom stared chiming in, telling the teachers to go to some meeting. That was fine, but the bad part was that we couldn't leave class until they finished! Souzai Daigaku better not close by the time this stinking meeting's over!

King Moron turned and left, and I turned to the new guy, hoping he'd sympathise with my cause. "Aw, man. I was hoping we'd go off early today..."

He seemed like he was about to respond before the distant wail of sirens caught our attention, and we looked to the left window - the sound apparently coming from beyond, but not that far from where we were. Some guys went up to check, but they couldn't see anything through all the fog. How thick could it've been?

Something else quickly diverted my attention when I heard Yukiko's name being called. One of the guys from last year's class, Naraomi, was asking her something.

"Is it true that announcer's staying at your family's inn?"

Yukiko started fidgeting in her seat, head down. "I can't discuss such things."

"Y-Yeah, I guess not," he said before turning to leave just like that. Gee, thanks, you made it pretty clear that was all you waltzed up here for.

I started getting antsy, and the new guy was... taking a nap? He kinda just leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes. He looked like he was thinking of something, but all it did was make me ten times more bored. I got up and went over to Yukiko, letting out a drawn-out breath.

"Sheesh, how much longer is this gonna take?"

"There's no telling," she replied. Again like with Yosuke, she made it seem like she didn't care one bit, and yet said it in a way that it wouldn't even offend you. Typical Yukiko, I suppose...

"I should've left before the announcement came on..." Getting in time for Super Croquettes was probably out of the question now. I began internally fishing for something else to think about when it hit me. I lightened up, and it looked like Yukiko noticed too. "By the way, didja try what I told you the other day? You know... That thing about rainy nights..."

I almost couldn't believe it when I first found out! True, I just read it somewhere online, and even _I_ was smart enough to know that you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet, but it was worth a shot, right? It didn't hurt to just stay up a while to see if it worked, plus, well... I guess Midnight Channel sounded pretty legitimate...?

I mean, if I came up with some scary midnight television broadcast, that's what _I'd_ call it, too. The Midnight Channel... Has a simple, yet effective ring to it.

Yukiko almost put a hand to her mouth, having that guilty look like whenever she had to cancel plans to work at the inn. "Oh... No, not yet. Sorry."

Argh, I half-expected that to happen, considering Yukiko's heavy schedule. I waved it off, gesturing with my hand.

"Ahhh, that's okay. It's just, I heard a guy in the class next door yell something like, 'My soulmate is Yamano, the announcer!'"

I threw my voice and made it deep to emphasise, waving my arms around. It got a chuckle outta Yukiko, and it even woke up the new guy, who straightened in his seat and looked at me. I lowered my arms back down, feeling pretty awkward. Normally, I wouldn't mind if anyone looked - otherwise I wouldn't even think of doing this kinda stuff in the first place - but he was the new guy, after all. The fancy city-boy transfer student, who was... well yeah kinda cute. First impressions matter, right?

...Don't they? Ahaha...

The intercom came back on, giving me a quick save. Now instead of telling us to stay put, they're saying we should leave immediately, since something happened in the school area and the police are checking it out. Oh sure, chase us out when all the _interesting_ stuff starts happening!

It didn't seem to stop some of the others, who wanted to try and check it out. As much as I wanted to tag along too, my tiredness won out and I decided to be happy to take orders from the speakerbox. I packed my bag, and Yukiko followed suit.

Feeling pretty confident all of a sudden - the relief of finally going back, taking a nice shower and watching _Trial of the Dragon_ again - since Yosuke's supposed to give it back today - I went over to the transfer student, who was getting ready to leave too.

"Hey, are you going home by yourself?"

"Yeah," he replied, giving another solid nod. He seemed to do that pretty often.

I put on my best face and decided to take this opportunity to get to know the guy better. He _is_ my desk buddy, after all, and will be for a pretty long time. What's more, Yukiko wasn't going to the inn today, so I could introduce her to him. He was apparently blind enough not to spot and be dazzled by her when he first came into class, and walked right past her. I wanted to remedy that. Heck, I'm probably doing him a favour.

"Why don't you come with us?" I nodded, trying to subliminally get him to give one too, since he seemed to do it so often.

It was then that I realised how stupid I was. I've been next to this guy the whole day!

"Oh, nearly forgot! I'm Chie Satonaka. You know I sit next to you, right?" I said, trying to laugh it off. _Trying_.

He gave another professional nod. "Of course." Damn. Was kinda hoping he made a joke or something out of that. I practically handed it to him on a skewer. Guess he's not that sort.

"Well, nice to meet you!" I pointed over to Yukiko, hoping to get my impromptu plan into motion. "This is Yukiko Amagi."

She started clamming up. "Oh, nice to meet you... I'm sorry that this is so sudden..."

What's so sudden?! That's not the reply I hoped for from you at all, Yukiko... I lightly slapped her on her shoulder. More like a pat, really.

"C'mon, don't apologise like that! It makes me look like I got no upbringing." I alternated my view between Yukiko and the transfer student. "I just wanted to ask some stuff. Really, that's all!"

All of a sudden, Yosuke came up to us. Oh, he remembered! Almost forgot to get it back. He looked pretty down, though. In a literal sense, like he wasn't even looking at any of us.

"Uh, um, Miss Satonaka?"

"Whoa, what's with the 'Miss'?" I realised he was holding up the DVD case of my _Trial of the Dragon, _like a nervous kid in a store.

He was keeping his legs pretty closely together, too. His knees were practically knocking.

"This was really awesome," Yosuke said. Well, glad to see he liked it. The new guy seemed pretty lost though, and was just looking at him like he was waiting for something to happen. "Like, the way they moved was just amazing to see..."

Gosh, he makes it sound like a dirty flick or something. Don't send the new guy the wrong message, it's _my_ DVD you know!

Then, he bows a full 90 degrees, offering me the DVD with both hands. I took it gingerly, not really knowing how to react.

"And... I'm really sorry! It was an accident! Please, just have mercy on until my next paycheck!"

He rose right back up and turned on his heels like a top. "Seeya thanks!"

I finally gathered that this was getting fishy. Slow uptake, I know. I... well, my body kinda reacted before my observations could even tell what was wrong. But it was like, I knew, in _my soul_ or something, that something was not well with the universe.

"Stop right there! What did you do to my DVD?!"

I didn't even care what the new guy would think, I was _fuming and I didn't know why_. You learn enough kung-fu moves and it just becomes instinct. My foot just went crazy and found its mark.

"AGH!"

I was surprised he could still stand after that! I opened the case, and my suspicions were proven true.

"What the?! I can't believe this! It's completely cracked..."

M... My-My...

"My _Trial of the Dragon_!"

"I think mine's cracked too... C-Critical hit to the nads..."

"You think you still can talk after this?! Explain this, Yosuke!"

"I don't think... now's a really good time..." said Yosuke, whimpering.

I grabbed the top of his arm. "You bet it is! What did you do, drop your fat head on it?!"

"A-Are you alright?" Yukiko came in, and then I realised the transfer student was watching too, along with whoever else was left in class. I had to force myself to calm down, but only just enough to not hit Yosuke a second time.

"Oh, Yukiko-san..." Yosuke managed. "Are you worried about me...?"

"You still got the guts to say that?!" I clenched my fist at him, and he reeled back, knocking butt-first into a desk. I turned to Yukiko, the transfer student standing behind her. I tried not to look at his expression. "He's fine, Yukiko. Let's ditch him and go home."

* * *

So, out of nowhere, before I knew it, the short-haired girl, who I just found out was named Satonaka, invited me to walk with her and her friend - which was a nice gesture - and the next minute gave that bike guy from this morning a thrashing in the worst place and manner possible. Which was not so nice. I knew she was nowhere near me when it happened, but what girls fail to realise is...

...If that sort of thing happens to _one_ guy, we feel like it happened to _all of us_, in some way or another.

If there was one thing I even remotely liked about it, it was that it was serious enough to get my mind off those dreams. Plus, it put Satonaka on the map, so to speak, in my mind. Though, probably not in the way she would have wanted.

What made me feel conflicted was that on one side of me, I saw this athletic, cute girl destroy a man with a single, well-placed kick - which made me go, _What a gal! _

On the other, watching a man get destroyed _that_ way - and he wasn't even a criminal or anything - made me feel really bad for both him, and Satonaka in fact, and that I had to learn just how interesting this girl was... at his mortal expense.

And... interesting may not be the right word to use. I almost felt like I didn't want to touch this girl with a ten-foot pole. I'll go with the catch-all term... _unique_ for now.

"He's fine, Yukiko. Let's ditch him and go home."

Satonaka and her friend Amagi started on their way out. She briefly looked in my general direction, though not making eye contact - making me somewhat glad that she had _some_ sort of conscience regarding this - before leaving. I took this as her still wanting me to go with the plan to walk home with them.

At first, I was open to the idea. I could get some fast friends in this class from the get-go, and the fact they were both good-looking didn't exactly sour things. As long as it stayed that way, as friends, I didn't mind at all.

Now, though... I suppose I'd be walking a little closer to Amagi during the large duration of this walk.

Making my way to the exit, I looked over to the hapless victim. I couldn't quite catch his name in the chaos. First the bike, now this... Seeing him hopping about and cringing like that, it goes without saying that... he looks like he's in a lot of pain.

I debated about helping him out, feeling like a gawking passerby of a terrible car accident who's weighing between not getting involved and being a helpful citizen. Then again, what could I possibly do that could help him at this point? Put some ice on it? He doesn't know me at all, and neither did I know him.

...

I should leave him be.

* * *

**A/N:** So, I'm going along with this idea I had, that all the dialogue prompts and notifications you saw in the game wasn't merely for the player's eyes, but were actually Souji's (yeah, going with that name for now) thought processes at the moment.

Also, forgive me, but I think my tenses are pretty all over the place. It's supposed to be in past tense, but I went with present tense whenever I was either unsure about its usage or felt that it'd sound better and not hurt the flow or quality of the writing much. It shouldn't be a problem unless you look for them.

Thank you for reading so far. :)


	4. Chapter 3: Girls are Like Pandas

**A/N:** Heads up for some of you, I've decided to change the protag's name from Yu to Souji, and will probably be sticking with it from now on - in case you didn't check back to the beginning chapter. That's all.

* * *

"You're Yuki, right? Y-You want to go hang out somewhere?"

Who is this guy?

On the way out of the school grounds with Satonaka and Amagi, we encountered this strange student. He wasn't from around here, judging by the uniform. If I had to guess, I would have suspected he's here for an important reason, given that the nearest school around here would have required a bus trip.

But apparently, all he came here for was a date.

Given my irrelevance to the situation at hand - not knowing what was going on - I took to observing the girls, hoping to get a hint. However, both of them looked even more confused than me. Satonaka particularly had a bit of some other emotion mixed in, judging by her tense brow.

"What...?" Amagi stammered. "Wh-Who are you?"

Some other students around us began to gather around the commotion, talking about it. One of them mentioned some Amagi Challenge. I can already make three guesses about what _that_ is.

The stranger started getting nervous too, looking around. I wasn't sure, but I think I smelt something off about him. Some sort of cologne... lots of it. I appreciated his foresight, actually, but his approach needed work... seeing that Amagi was taking a half-step backwards at this point.

"Um... s-so, are you coming or not?" said the strange student, he broadened his shoulders and walked right up to Amagi. Satonaka stepped in, shielding Amagi with her outstretched arm.

"Hey, lay off, okay?" she said, trying to keep her voice down, but obviously still channelling her anger from that cracked DVD case from earlier. "If she doesn't want to, she doesn't want to!"

"Y-! Back off. This has nothing to do with you," the strange student hissed.

"It does now," she snapped back in a second. "Your deal with Yukiko is your deal with me."

In that moment, I noticed something a little off about Satonaka when she said the last part. Her brow furrowed. I knew what that was: uncertainty. She didn't believe what she said, though I didn't know why. I didn't try to bother, so I stayed as the silent watcher to see what would happen.

Amagi finally looked up, more or less, back at the strange student. She put her hand on Satonaka's shoulder.

The strange student looked at Amagi this time, and noticeably forced his voice to be gentler. "W-Well? Come on, Yuki!"

Amagi finally spoke up, her voice soft. "I-I'm not going..."

The guy's nose flared and his eyes widened something fierce. "F... Fine!" He turned and stormed off, and I was sure I could hear him spit out "D...Damn bitch!" as he went. Soon enough, he was out of sight.

The others calmed down, and Satonaka gave Amagi some space. Amagi turned to her. "Wh-What did he want from me...?" she said, more bewildered than afraid now. Glad she calmed down so unusually fast.

"What did he want?" Satonaka scoffed at where the strange student disappeared. "Obviously, he was asking you out on a date," she said, before quickly adding under her breath "But he sure flat-out failed on that one..."

"Huh? Really...?" Amagi said, in response to what she _could_ hear, I suppose. Satonaka had her head turned towards me and away from her when she said the last part.

"You really had no clue?" Satonaka turned sharply to her friend. "Sheesh... But then again, that was way over the top. It was _creepy_ how he called you 'Yuki' all of a sudden!"

And as if to emphasise, she threw her voice into a deep one, trying to imitate a boy, and went at Amagi making clawing motions like a bogeyman. "Yuki... Hey Yuki, go out on a date with me, will ya?"

"Ch-Chie...! Stop it!" Amagi said, trying to escape as Satonaka chased her in a circle, laughing. I couldn't help but smile at the sight too, glad the situation's sorted now. These two must be really good friends.

Satonaka threw her voice like that earlier, too. She was talking about some guy saying that announcer was his soulmate... something along those lines. Heard about that lady on the news last night on the day I moved in.

I was trying to take a rest at the time after that announcement instructed us to stay in class, mulling over that lousy dream that's been plaguing my thoughts. I kept trying not to think about it, but it kept trying to push in, preventing me from ignoring it - like it _wanted_ me to think about this damn "contract" thing this Igor told me about.

Then, I heard the voice of a girl trying - and failing - to mimic a guy's voice. I opened my eyes, and it was Satonaka, trying to entertain her friend Amagi. I'd be lying if I didn't find it cute, how she was flailing her arms about.

I was pretty grateful for her at the time - she helped me get my mind off it. I wanted to at least communicate that gratitude by offering a smile, but she stopped when I looked at her, looking a bit awkward. I guess I must've put her off.

"Yo, Yukiko-san. Turned down another lovelorn fool, huh?"

The cycling student who totalled his bike and was totalled by Satonaka showed up with his bike - both of them seemingly intact. The guy himself seemed to have recovered gracefully, all things considered.

"Man, you're cruel... You got me the same way last year."

"I don't recall doing that," said Amagi, turning to him as he approached.

"Whoa, you serious?" He propped his bike up. "So then, you wanna hang out sometime?!"

"...I'd rather not," she said, apologetic, with her head down. She shook her head to emphasise.

"That'll teach me to get my hopes up..." he sighed. Satonaka just snickered in support. He got his bicycle moving again and made ready to bid us farewell. "Anyways, you two better not pick on the transfer student too much."

He got on his yellow bike and zoomed off like a flash of lightning before Satonaka could grab and/or throttle him, so she just stamped her foot in place. "We're just curious, is all!"

I appreciate your concern, cycling student. You escaping is indicative of otherwise, though. And besides, curious about what? All we city folk have more than you people are buildings, cars... and all the smoke and noise that comes with them.

...

That's not bad. Maybe I'll tell it to them on the way home when I get the chance.

* * *

"Ah... so you came here because of your parents' job."

That stupid Yosuke committed the crime of ruining my _Trial of the __Dragon_, and he escaped on his bike too! I wasn't going to let him get away with it - that klutz was gonna buy me the fattest, juiciest steak he knows _how_ to buy, and I'm gonna make him buy one for Yukiko and the new guy, too! Hey, it'll earn some brownie points with him, and I'll be doing Hanamura a favour by introducing the new guy to him too!

"That's right," replied the new guy, giving another of his trademark nods. The two of us and Yukiko were walking home together, and we took a turn into one of the neighbourhood lanes.

"Haha, I thought it was something way more serious."

I could've sworn I saw him give a sharp glance before his expression softened back again - it was just for a blink and I may have just been seeing things - but it shut me up right away.

"S-Sorry! I mean, it's tough, y'know? Me and Yukiko, we've been here all our lives, so there's no way we..."

The new guy shook his head. "It's fine." He smiled in response, but I could tell it probably wasn't real. Crap, I must've hit a raw nerve. Stupid! And wasn't his name Souji Seta? Quit calling him "new kid" already!

"Th-That's right," Yukiko chimed in for a much-welcomed save. "We hope you're not offended."

"Yeah! It's just that, we rarely get transfer students around here, let alone from the city!"

"Hm," the new gu- I mean, Seta said, thoughtful. "Well, it's not like we city people are aliens or anything."

"Well, of course I don't mean it that way," I replied, trying to laugh it off. Seta smiled back politely too. I relaxed, hoping he was fine now. Maybe he was always fine, and my eyes were playing tricks on me. My imagination tended to get over-active at times anyway... "But looking at our _last_ city boy, Yosuke, I'd be gladder if he _was_ one... I bet an alien has more courtesy than him, even those blood-sucking, movie ones!"

"Yosuke?" he asked.

"Oh, that's right! Yosuke's the one who, um..." I froze, remembering what I did to him earlier at class. Knowing Seta was watching made me feel pretty bad about it. Whether he did it or not, it _may_ have been a little over in dispensing the justice... "The one who gave back my DVD?"

"Oh, him," he nodded, taking note. He looked forward and gave a mock cough, obviously trying to mask the discomfort I laid onto him. "Though, the way we left him, I think I'll be the _only_ city boy in the class now."

"Ugh," I reeled. "That bad, huh..." Even Yukiko was nodding a little too vigorously at me from behind Seta, unable to see her.

Seta nodded too. "It was an interesting first impression you made..."

Oh man... I must look like a total monster to this guy now. But still, he _did_ still end up walking with us, right?

I gulped. Yeah, he did end up following us. Out of _fear_ of going back on our arrangement. He probably thinks I'll deck him too - cross me and you're dead. I feel like that mafia boss from one of those movies... You can't say no to him, or he'll make you regret it.

We ended up walking in silence for a while, but luckily it served to slowly dissipate the uncomfortable atmosphere as time went on... emphasis on "slowly". We arrived on a road, passing by some paddy fields. I gestured to the sight, hoping to showcase our little town to the new guy. I mean Seta...

"There really is nothing here, huh?" Seta turned his attention to the fields, which made me take a close look at them, too, taking in the scene. "But I guess... That's what makes it nice." I turned back to him. "But... there's nothing much here we can show to people from outside."

Seta's eyes lit up, and he shook his head. "There's no need to say it like that. All we city folk have more than you people are buildings, cars... and all the smoke and noise that comes with them."

I laughed a little, and Yukiko smiled a little too. I appreciated that he could find a little good in an old countryside like Inaba, since he'll be living here for some time and all. "Haha, if you put it that way... I guess both environments have their pros and cons too, huh?"

He nodded, looking pretty satisfied at my reaction. What, was he saving that little joke just for this or something?

I went on to talk to Seta about Mt. Yasogami and our pottery, hoping to prove to whoever that I knew _something_ about my hometown. The history lessons coming soon might be a different story, though... "Oh wait, and there's the Amagi inn!" I gestured with both arms to Yukiko, who was sticking to herself on the far end, slightly behind us. "Yukiko's family runs it. It's the pride of Inaba!"

That seemed to have caught her attention, and she joined the conversation. "Huh? It's... just an old inn."

Nuh uh, I ain't gonna let you sell yourself short to the new guy. "No way! It's been in all sorts of magazines as a hidden treasure, and I suspect it's fame can only go up once Yukiko here takes over someday. It's pretty much what keeps this place going."

"...I don't think that's entirely true," Yukiko said in a flat tone. Come on, you weren't even embarrassed by that?! And don't say it so plainly like it's a fact! Maybe I should teach you a lesson...

Noting Seta's interest in the conversation, somehow absorbing all the facts I just told him, and now that the focus is on Yukiko now, I decided that now was my chance to strike.

"So, tell me. You think Yukiko's cute, huh?"

"Ch-Chie!" Yukiko sputtered, finally getting involved. Seta too was taken aback by this, his view tracing wildly in all directions except at Yukiko. Hook, line and sinker.

"Well?" I prodded in a melodic tone, but Seta just kept quiet.

"..."

"Come on!" I laughed, with Yukiko grabbing me with one arm and shaking me lightly, trying to make sure Seta doesn't see. "Chie...! Come on, don't start this again..."

"She's really popular at school, but she's never had a boyfriend before! Kinda weird, huh?"

"I wouldn't really say so..." was Seta's reply. Poor guy was even blushing a little bit.

"Oh...?"

"C-Come on, stop it." Yukiko barged in, turning to Seta. "Y-You shouldn't believe that, okay? It's not true that I'm popular or that I've never had a boyfriend." She then started waving her hand, as if to negate what she said. "Wait, n-no! What I meant to say is that, I don't need a boyfriend!" She finally gave up, hanging her head down. "Geez... Chie!"

I got myself laughing at the look on her face. Seta was shaking his head himself, looking pretty defeated, or deflated... maybe both. "Ahaha, sorry! I'm sorry!" I looked to Yukiko, who looked back at me with tired disapproval. "But this is our chance to talk to someone from the big city, and you barely said a word!"

Unexpectedly though, Seta stopped right in his tracks. Surprised, Yukiko and I stopped walking, too. He stood rooted in place, looking somewhat intently at Yukiko, brow furrowed.

"Um..." Yukiko squeaked, turning a shoulder to him. "What is it...?"

"Hold on a second, Satonaka," Seta suddenly said, his words quick. He held his arm out towards me, pointer finger raised.

Seta put both hands on his hips, eyes still locked onto Yukiko, which was when I got at what he was trying to imply. "Oh, I get it..." I laughed again, glad that Seta wasn't happy with me leaving it at that. "Are you... reconsidering your answer? You're welcome to!"

The last time we walked a new guy home and I asked him the same question about Yukiko being cute, he just gave a resounding "Oh, definitely!" That guy was Yosuke. Seta still was looking at Yukiko, and for some reason he started tapping his foot while stealing glances at me, like he was waiting for my response. I obliged him.

"Hey, how long are you gonna take to make a decision?"

"Sorry about that Amagi." Seta finally took his eyes off Yukiko and turned to me, and Yukiko's posture noticeably relaxed. I noticed that during the whole time, his gaze was only fixed on Yukiko's face, and didn't go any further down. It made me pretty relieved that we didn't have another pervert on our hands like Yosuke or that weirdo from earlier - just a guy who was innocently joking around. It made me smile a little wider.

This guy really_ isn't_ all too bad at all.

"Are you curious about my answer, Satonaka?" Seta finally said, expressing his desire to take a second shot at getting Yukiko's attention. I guess the first time threw him off, but now he was ready to say it straight. Smooth, has manners, doesn't go overboard... this guy's the polar opposite of Yosuke! Well okay, a polar opposite of Yosuke would've said "Ew, no!" to the question I asked, but given the chances of _that_ happening...

Seta was smiling a bit, though, so I knew he was just playing around with us. I decided to play along too and gave a superhero stance, putting my hands on my hips and blocking the road we were walking on. Yukiko however was just kinda standing there helpless while the both of us were picking on her. Sorry, Yukiko! I smiled, "Of course! Alright, second chance! Do you think Yukiko's cute or not?"

Yukiko by now was panicking. "Wh-Why are you bringing this up again, Seta-kun...? Chie does this all the time. J-Just ignore her...! "

"Don't worry, Amagi, I know," said Seta, giving a reassuring smile to Yukiko. Hm...? What was he getting at?

"There's no need to be embarrassed," he said to Yukiko again. He took a step towards me instead, and looked pretty serious.

"Satonaka, you should know better."

"Huh?" I pointed to myself, bewildered. "Me...? What did I do?"

"You were trying to pull a quick one on both of us," was his curt reply. "Yosuke already told you not to pick on me."

A laugh just came out of me, feeling pretty incredulous about this. What was Seta trying to play at, here?

"Nah," I said, quick to gain the upper hand. "He said not to pick on you _too much._" I grinned, happy that I somehow managed to remember Yosuke's exact words.

Seta just gave a light chuckle. "To me, it _is_ too much." He continued, shifting his shoulder to adjust his bag. The way he said it... it almost sounded like a light taunt - like I was gonna regret pulling a fast one on him. But obviously, he's got nothing on me, so I didn't feel threatened at all. He cleared his throat before proceeding with giving me his answer. "Anyway, to answer your question... I think so, yeah."

It got a good laugh outta me, and Yukiko almost face-palmed, resting the back of her finger against her forehead. "Was that all of this was for...?"

I crossed my arms, an unexpected but not-exactly-unwelcome feeling of victory filling me now that Seta admitted it. All the guys can't resist Yukiko, even him! I was pretty pleased, so I wanted to make sure Seta would hear an earful of it too. I took a breath and directed a big grin at him.

"A-ha! I knew it-"

Seta quickly held up a finger to stop me and opened his mouth. "Generally speaking, anyway."

Wait... generally speaking? What?

"Huh?" I blurted out. Even Yukiko looked at me, pretty confused at what he just said.

Yukiko took some steps towards Seta, so he could see her. She looked way more curious than flustered. "What do you mean by that, Seta-kun?"

"Well..." Seta trailed off into silence. However, instead of looking tongue-tied, he looked more like he was trying to remember something. "I saw a documentary yesterday about baby pandas. They were cute. You'd say that _all_ baby pandas, generally speaking, are cute, wouldn't you, Satonaka?"

"Huh? Well, yeah, baby pandas _are _cute..." I said. That was a big enough truth that even _I_ didn't feel girly agreeing with it. It helped that he was the one who pointed it out in the first place.

Looking like he's been completely satisfied, he started walking again as if nothing happened, taking advantage of my confusion to pass by me. Still, I managed to step backwards and stop him, spreading my arms out to block him.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? What does..."

Oh, I get it... Why did he have to beat around the bush so much, though? I gave him a sly smile. "Oh, so you mean Yukiko's _objectively_ cute, no matter what? Why didn't you say so?" I wanted to see the look on Yukiko's face when he speedily cut in, shaking his head.

"That's not it, Satonaka."

"Hm, then what?"

"Don't misunderstand me," he tutted. "Amagi can't be _every_ panda out there." He looked at me like I was supposed to know this, and so I pretended that I did.

"Um... sure! What _do_ you mean, then?"

"I mean..." Seta took a step back, and then looked at Yukiko to make sure she was listening. "You yourself. You're just as much of a panda as Amagi is."

...Wait.

"Wha-huh?" was all I could say in response. "Wha-Wha do you..."

Yukiko however was beginning to smile, noting the pressure's getting off of her. "Ohhh..." she said, lifting a finger showing she's just figured it out.

Wait...

"What I'm saying is," Seta continued. "You shouldn't be tough on Amagi. You're just as cute as she is."

...

What-

"Don't you think so too, Amagi?" He beckoned to Yukiko, smiling. "What were your exact words again, Satonaka? Um..." He looked to Yukiko. "So, tell me. You think Satonaka's cute, huh?"

"Hey-"

Yukiko quickly walked up, tossing a knowing smile my way. "Why yes, I think she's very cute! Just adorable."

Glad to see _you're_ happy it's on me now! My cheeks are heating up! Why does my face feel so hot? I-It must be the embarrassment from... from these two ganging up on me! And what's Seta doing with his eye-

"Hey! Don't think I didn't see you winking to Yukiko!" I yelled, pointing a finger straight at him like a mad, betrayed gunman.

"Of course not - that's why I let you see it." Seta winked at _me_ now, and then he just kept smiling that... that smug smile. "Is something wrong? Amagi says you do this all the time."

"N-Not this way!" I stamped my foot, face burning. "Y-You're supposed to be calling Yukiko cute, not-!"

M...

Me?

Seta chuckled again, keeping his satisfied joy to himself. Yukiko was laughing a little, too.

What... what was...

He shrugged, looking way too satisfied. He started walking again, ready to pass by me. "I'm really sorry, Satonaka. But you set me up. And..." He froze mid-sentence for just a second - I caught it before he walked past. His voice was soft so only I could hear it, still chipper - but something about the tone... it wasn't the same kind of chipper as just now. He didn't look at me.

"...I don't like losing. Sorry again. No hard feelings?"

Those words caught me, but he kept walking past, stopping me from calling him. Yukiko walked past me, too, and took some time to rub it in.

"About time someone turned the tables on you," she said, smiling. "Every time we introduce a new male student to the town, you pull this trick on me."

It took me a few seconds to catch myself so that I could answer Yukiko. "Sorry..." I murmured. "Just a joke, that's all. Plus none of those 'male students' caught your eye so far anyway, and I wanted to keep trying." I tilted my head and looked at her with the best apologetic look I could make, hoping to get off the hook.

"Well you can keep trying, because it's never going to work with the method _you're_ using," Yukiko jabbed back. Ouch, sorry...

She then looked confused for a second before hurriedly correcting herself. "Wait, I mean, stop trying!"

"I can't guarantee you, but... Oh, fine! Okay..." I finally gave in, having learnt my lesson. I smiled at her. "Since you don't like it."

"Good," Yukiko nodded, seemingly satisfied before she added something again. "I never did, by the way." was her correction, before she practically "hmphed" me.

We started walking again, and Yukiko lowered her voice, looking at Seta while he was walking further down the road. We were out of the paddy fields and were going into the neighbourhood again. She raised her eyebrows and gave me a smile. "Although..."

"Although what?" I asked, curious about what it was she _still _had to say. I already said I was sorry...! Have some mercy...

"It seems you've caught _his_ eye," Yukiko finally said. She lightly elbowed me in the side as we caught up to Seta. "Hm? Hm?"

Heyyy_waitaminute_

"D...!" I hissed, lowering my voice. "Don't get the wrong idea! He wasn't interested in me - he was just trying to get back at me, that's all!"

Eager to defend my case, I jabbed Yukiko's side. "Besides, if anything, _you're_ the one who caught his eye - why d'you think he came to your rescue, started getting chummy with you and everything?"

"If I caught his eye," Yukiko said. "He would've said so the first time."

"I-! Maybe...! Argh, forget it!"

I quickened my pace and left Yukiko behind, who was laughing a bit at my expense. I also didn't want her to see my face - I started walking faster the moment my cheeks was heating up again. What do I even look like right now?

Stupid transfer student. Are all city boys this insensitive? Figures. Now I have _two_ jerks to deal with, one sitting behind me, and now one's right beside me!

Sheesh. I hope we don't get another.

* * *

**A/N:** Well... I certainly got carried away writing this chapter... Sheesh, longest single chapter of any fic I've written so far, too. I'd intended to have them at the police site, meet Dojima, and end at them parting ways, but now... this. I wanted to put in this part and make it work so badly that it got pretty long. Heh. It added some really weird things I didn't expect. Souji's now less quiet than I intended, the spark with Chie got started much earlier and less subtly than I intended or even _liked_, and... yeah. But I like it so much... that I'm letting it stay anyway.

I'm particularly glad that I managed to write more Yukiko into it and let her stand out a little through this. I was a little worried at first she wouldn't have the prominent presence I would've wanted, since it i_s_ a Chie POV fic after all, and they're best friends - nevermind Souji's Social Link with Yukiko afterward...

Anyway, that's enough author babbling for now. As before, I give you my thanks for reading so far. :)


	5. Chapter 4: Trouble Brewing

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait, readers. I'll be getting back into the swing of things, so hopefully we'll be picking back up again. Strangely enough, a chunk of that time I could've spent writing was taken by Persona _3P_ instead. :p Sorry 'bout that.

* * *

I can't believe I just pulled that off.

I walked right ahead after performing that elaborate prank on Satonaka, suddenly gaining a strange confidence from the depths of... I don't know where, and now that I've come to my senses I'm walking as fast as I can so that I can't see how upset she is right now.

Baby pandas - seriously?

I really wasn't really sure where I got the courage for that - delivering each line smooth and uninterrupted. Well, not that I didn't have the ability, but rather that I even bothered to in the first place. My internal self broke out of the reserved shell I had specially made for first-day-of-school - if not _all_ school purposes. The shell I'm _supposed_ to be keeping up here, dammit.

Though, if anything, it was kinda nice to have the chance to see Satonaka this flustered on the first day of meeting her. She was already pretty cute before, but when she got surprised, her eyes grew really big and bright, and it was almost like the heavy blush on her cheeks served to frame her eyes even more.

Furthermore, if anything _else_, I at least in some way made it up to that guy by getting back at her for her abuse of him...

Anyway, strange justifications aside, Satonaka and Amagi caught up to me, just in time to arrive at a street where a pair of busy housewives were chatting away. We saw some police officers and their car too, for some reason.

"Wow, who could imagine _that_ hanging from an antenna?"

"I wanted to see it too..."

Satonaka walked up to me, already calmed down. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Uh, you got here too late..." said the first housewife. "The police and fire department already took it down just a moment ago."

"Well, I think it's terrifying," said the second. "I can't believe a dead body showed up around here..."

"...Wait, what did she just say?" Satonaka said, leaning forward. "A dead body?!"

A familiar face showed up. It was Uncle Dojima, and if it weren't for Nanako pointing out what he did for a living, I'd have wondered what he was doing there.

"Hey, what're you doing here?"

I'd rather not get on his bad cop side - having just arrived here - and it's pretty obvious from the chatter that something really sensitive had happened. I played dumb for now and cleared my throat.

"We're just passing by."

He seemed convinced enough, judging by his none too suspicious expression. "Huh, I should've figured that would happen..." Dojima scratched his head, muttering to himself. "That damn principal. We told him not to let them through here..."

* * *

A body hanging from the antenna, did I hear that right?! Yukiko looked pretty shocked too. This officer then came up and started talking to Seta. I softened my voice.

"...You know this guy?"

Seta nodded way too sagely than he ought to again. "He's my uncle whose place I'm staying over at."

"I'm Detective Dojima, his guardian." He pursed his lips. "Uhh... Well, how should I say this..." He turned to Seta. "I hope you get along with him."

Well, I can't guarantee that, if he keeps pulling stuff like he did earlier...

The officer, Seta's uncle apparently, straightened his back, a stern look painted across his face. "But you three really ought to stop wandering around and head straight home."

"Um..." I was about to frantically agree when another officer came running out and ran to the ditch on the other side, proceeding to heave his guts out. Yukiko put a hand to her mouth by instinct, and Seta merely raised his brows, quite spiritedly at that. I turned to him. "Not another uncle of yours, I hope..."

Seta shook his head, closing his eyes. That must have been either a really terrible crime scene, or that officer must've been a rookie...

"Adachi! How long are you going to act like a rookie?!"

Well, that answers that somewhat... Detective Dojima began chewing the other officer out. During that, bells rang in my head, and I turned to Yukiko.

"Wait... Was this what that announcement was about...?"

"That may be..." said Yukiko. "But what do they mean... it was hanging from an antenna...?"

The streets suddenly felt pretty claustrophobic, like they were closing in on us. A weird dead body ending up in Inaba...? And from an antenna? This was the kind of thing you'd expect to see on the evening news about some faraway seedy city, but here...?

"Hey, Yukiko...?" I said, exiting that train of thought. "Why don't we go to Junes some other time? C'mon, let's just go home today..."

Yukiko nodded, sharing my concern. "Good idea..."

Yukiko went ahead, so I took this chance to address Seta as she walked. "Sorry, but..."

"Yeah, there's no problem," Seta interjected into my awkward trail-off, much to my relief.

Jerk or not, the new guy did seem perceptive enough of situations to handle them with care, and I didn't want him to get hurt on his first day in our town, especially not after me playing up all our good points earlier. That'd be the worst first impression any place would give anyone!

"Will you be okay, though...?" I added.

"It's alright, the house I'm staying in isn't that far," said Seta. "And as you can see, my uncle's an officer..."

"Right, right." For some reason, the way he danced around just calling it "my home" stood out to me - but I guess that should be no surprise seeing he just moved here. I made a mental note for tomorrow onwards to do the best I could to convince him that Inaba is _far_ from a psycho town full of strange deaths. I saw Yukiko turn around, waiting for me to keep up. She was fidgeting - obviously uncomfortable about this whole thing just as I was. I gave her a nod to tell her I was coming.

"Alright then, we're taking off."

Seta gave a nod. I gave him the best smile I could, but the nerves were quite a bit stronger than I expected. All the officers and police cars around made me feel like we were just a corner away from seeing a gross body bag, even though that wasn't likely... I pumped my fist a bit to shake it off, hoping to put him at ease a little too - though I admit, it was probably helping me much more, judging by his more neutral expression.

"Okay! Starting tomorrow, neighbour, let's do our best!"

"Neighbour...? You mean you live near...?" Seta leaned a bit forward, before his mouth gaped a little. "Oh, you mean our desks. Of course." He lightly palmed his forehead, and turned away a little. Part of me was kinda glad he wasn't taking the body-on-the-antenna thing so grimly, but part of me also felt a bit weird that he was so laid-back about it. Does he see this sort of thing all the time in the city? Or maybe he's just putting up a pleasant front, like I am...

"Well, okay," Seta said more firmly, holding his hand out. A handshake, here...? He said "Let's do our best" before muttering "at... whatever it is..." right after that, coaxing a small laugh from me. I took his hand and shook it as quickly as I could manage without being standoffish, because it was then that I noticed my palms were getting little bit sweaty from standing near this crime scene for so long. Maybe he's feeling much more at ease 'cause he's not facing it...

"Seeya." I gave him a nod before leaving, prompting another one from him in reply.

* * *

Later that night, I got a call from Yukiko while I was doing some light reading in my room, lying on the bed. "Hey, Yukiko. What's up?"

"Hey, Chie. Did you watch the news?"

"Oh, yeah! Turns out it was that announcer lady, Yamano, right?" I put my magazine aside and sat up. "It was surreal to hear about that antenna stuff, when just earlier... you know? I got goosebumps all over my neck when I heard it!"

"I wasn't expecting it either..." Yukiko trailed off for a while, discomfort showing in her voice on the other side of the line. "But they _did_ say it may not have been a murder... I don't know how she could've gotten that way, but if at least murder wasn't involved..."

"Yeah... I get it."

"The only thing like that that as happened was that car accident from years ago... do you remember? It just kind of flashed in my memory when I heard the news. At least that's a sign that things like these are so few and far between..."

"I guess, maybe..." I kneaded my temples with my free hand before tossing the magazine on my desk nearby, deciding to call it a day. "This is all pretty stressful, Yukiko. Sorry, but I'm gonna call it a day..."

"Oh, that would be for the best," Yukiko replied. "Have a good night's sleep, Chie."

"Thanks, Yukiko. You too." I hung up, giving a dragged out sigh. I got ready for bed and dragged the sheets over me, holding onto them a little more snugly than usual, staring up at the dark ceiling.

"To think it'd happen here, of all places..."

Still holding out that it might be a freak, if still horrible accident, I pushed the thought from my mind and tried to get some sleep. Luckily, it came pretty easily, and I settled into the night.

My last thoughts were a scattered reflection on the day's events - mostly the transfer student. I wondered if he was gonna turn out okay. What rotten timing...

* * *

**A/N:** Just a short one for now. I think I'll be pulling the story's first timeskip, but it's not that long. Thanks for reading and having patience with me.


	6. Chapter 5: The Flame of Forbidden Love

**A/N:** Hey people. First half is pretty by-the-book, following the game's events pretty closely, so don't get too bored reading! I wasn't expecting to mix it up in the last section, but I guess it's good that it happened. We haven't even gone into the TV yet! I'm not even too sure how to tackle that... Take it as it comes, I guess. Anyway...

* * *

The brave soldier whose family jewels were gravely endangered yesterday was confirmed to be named Yosuke, surname Hanamura to be precise. After Satonaka mentioned him yesterday, I finally got to be properly acquainted with him this morning - once I fished him out of a trash can when his bike totalled, yet again. I refused to stay quiet at his plight any longer, as his tendency to get himself hurt was too worrying to be complacent of.

My new acquaintance approached me after the day's classes, which were very much uneventful, as far as second days of school go. Morooka earlier seemed more vigorous than usual, and his enthusiasm was actually infectious enough that I paid attention to him. Some of the class' girls came up to me to engage in some small talk as well, but nothing much aside from that.

"Yo," said Hanamura. "Thanks for the save again."

"It's no problem at all," I said, shaking my head. If anything, I should have acted much earlier... I could've prevented at least two tragedies.

He nodded at what I did tell him, offering a smile. "So, you getting used to this place?"

Though I only just got to know him, my honest feelings won out in the end. Normally I'd just pacify him - heck, I did that with the _last_ school, being agreeable and all - but I guess I was too tired to do anything else but give the straight truth today. I didn't get any weird dreams last night thankfully, but my sleep still wasn't entirely pleasant.

"Not yet," I said, shaking my head again.

Fortunately, he seemed pretty understanding. "Yeah, well, you just got here."

"There isn't much to do here compared to the big city," said Hanamura, letting out a small breath, looking out the class window. "But there's that certain... something you can't get anywhere else, y'know?"

He's not from here either? He did have more modern vibe to him, judging from his hair and headphones. It's a little weird that he didn't really stand out apart from his accidents, though.

But I suppose he had a point. Even throughout today's lessons, I tuned out from the lectures a bit... and I realised just how cosy the classroom was. Being seated at the side, I had a lot of breathing room to my left, and a lot of the students were pretty low-key and quiet - when the teacher was talking, anyway.

Something about just how quiet the classroom was seemed palpable to me. My previous ones could get quiet too, no doubt - but those were usually during tense situations, like when the teacher was angry, or during a test - this one had a kind of... serenity to it. Even the background noise that did come up here and there was more pleasant stuff like birds chirping and the works, as opposed to car horns and traffic.

There was a... "certain something", as he said. Once just now, I leaned back in my seat and took a deep breath, which turned out to be surprisingly refreshing. And as if by cue...

"The air's clean," Hanamura continued. "The food's great... Oh, you know about the local delicacy?"

I gave him a smile. Though he only just implied he's from a city, it felt pretty comforting nonetheless to have some familiarity this early in my stay here. "Can't say I have. I only ate inside so far."

"Then allow me to introduce you to your first outside meal," he nodded, speaking with a dramatic flair. "It's grilled steak, man!" He laughed. "Like that's anything special, huh?"

Hanamura walked in closer, lowering his voice. "I know a place where you can get it cheap. Wanna come? You helped me out this morning, so it's on me."

Free food? Why not? I didn't mind hanging with him either - he seemed like a pretty cool person. "I'm down. I've got no plans anytime soon."

And then, out of nowhere, Satonaka popped in. A small look of dread materialised on Hanamura's face.

"What about me, huh?" she said, directed to Hanamura. She tapped her foot twice for emphasis, hands on her hips. "No apologies? Uh - my _Trial of the Dragon_?"

Hanamura slouched. "Ugh. You always come around when I'm talking about food, huh..."

"How about it, Yukiko?" Satonaka turned. I didn't even notice Amagi in front of us until Satonaka pointed her out - cleaning up her stuff and arranging them in her bag. "Don't you think he should treat us, too?"

Amagi opted out, mentioning something about watching her weight and the family inn from yesterday. I guess not everyone can have a carefree metabolism like Satonaka does...

After seeing her have a good time yesterday picking on Satonaka with me, it's a little unusual to see her so... well, dull? The actuality certainly wasn't the case, so I wondered if this was her default temperament, and what I saw yesterday was a rare glimpse I somehow had to privilege to see so early.

In any case though, she's pretty responsible compared to he rest of us school kids, or at least is loaded with a fair bit of it.

"Oh well," Satonaka sighed."_We_ should get going too."

"Huh?" Hanamura replied with a cringe. "Do I seriously have to treat _two_ people?" He turned to me. "Nothing wrong about treating _you_, of course..."

I glanced at Satonaka, who had a sly smile. I turned back to Hanamura.

"Of course."

* * *

"_This_ is the cheap place you were talking about? They don't have grilled steak here!"

Figures. Here I thought I was gonna eat like a king as compensation for my _Trial_ _of the Dragon_, and Yosuke brought me and Seta to Junes? Talk about a bait and switch...

"Okay, first thing - wasn't talking to you," said Yosuke, coming over to our table, placing a tray of food onto the surface, causing it to shake a little. Nothing like cheap tables to go with your meal... "Second: this isn't the place I was talking to _him_ about - I decided to switch." He punctuated the "him" part by jabbing at Seta's general direction, like he was trying to drill it into my head.

"Okay, I get it! Sheesh..." I'm not as dense as you, okay? I heard you the first time. But wait... "Huh? Then how come we're here?"

"Yeah, well, once you decided to hop on the freeloader train, I had to change my plans."

Seta interrupted with a hesitant cough, putting his fist to his mouth, which almost covered his cheeky smile. "You say that as if there was already someone on board..."

"Oh, no, no," Yosuke stammered, waving his arms. "I'm okay with you coming, that's not what I meant." He turned to me now. "I just didn't want to give Lady Satonaka here the privilege of the proper venue."

Humph. I stuck my tongue out at him. "Still, that's no reason to take us to your place."

"Dude, this isn't _my_ place or anything," he replied, incredulous. His expression brightened up as he turned to Seta. "Oh, right. I haven't told you yet, huh? I moved here from another city about six months back..."

While Yosuke was splurging his backstory to Seta, I suddenly remembered about the Midnight Channel thing. I guess it wouldn't hurt to get them in on the fun as well, since it might take a while before Yukiko ever gets enough free time to check it out...

"Here, this is to welcome your to town." Yosuke took one of the cups of soda that was on the tray, which prompted Seta to take another gingerly, replying with a curt nod. Man, what a strange guy... doesn't he ever just sit back and chill out with his buddies? I'm sure city boys don't actually act all posh like he does, judging by Yosuke here... But then again, after he completely embarrassed me yesterday, I figured it was just the same bad cake, with different frosting.

He looked to the last cup. "Satonaka, yours is on me, too."

Oh, it _better._ I quickly nabbed the soda and scrunched my nose, giving him a smirk. "Yeah, I know."

* * *

After some idle conversation, Hanamura's attention was diverted to this girl who looked like an employee here - probably a part-timer from the school. Satonaka confirmed that soon afterwards, identifying her as Saki Konishi. I couldn't make out any of their conversation, but by then she was already walking up to our table, eyes trained on me in particular.

"Are you the transfer student?" she said, offering a friendly smile, with upturned eyes.

I nodded and looked to Satonaka. "Saki Konishi, is what they told me."

Konishi laughed, apparently somewhat flattered. "Oh, did you hear about me already? It must be nice to have someone else from the big city to talk to, huh?" She looked briefly to Hanamura, who was standing behind her. "I don't see Hana-chan hanging out with the other guys much."

"Uh, n-not necessarily..." he said, trying to wave it off. Strange. He seemed like a friendly sort, but I guess it makes a little sense, since I had to approach him first via trashcan rescue.

Konishi nodded, as if what he did affirmed what she said. "He doesn't have too many friends, so I hope you get along good. Hana-chan's a good guy, but he can get nosy sometimes. You gotta tell him right to his face when he starts to annoy you."

Nosy? Annoying? It'd make more sense if she warned me that he was a walking accident scene. He looked pretty nervous at the back there, and I didn't want to give her the wrong idea of my impression of him either. Still, we only just met... Sure, he bought me food - but I wasn't going to start showering praises and calling him a great guy or anything...

"That's not true," I finally said, lightly shaking my head, trying not to sound too stern.

"I'm just kidding," she replied, laughing it off.

...I'm not so sure about this girl.

"Ahahah, you had me going there, Senpai." Hanamura wasn't too bad at trying to seize back the conversation. It wasn't meant to last, though.

"Well, my break's just about over. Back to work I go…" said Konishi. She turned around and waved to none of us in particular. "Laters!"

..."Laters", huh...

"Oh uh, Senpai...!" stammered Hanamura, before quickly giving up and returning to his seat at our table, while Konishi disappeared among the stalls and made her way out of the food court. All things considered, Hanamura seemed to still be in a good mood. "Hahah, Saki-senpai says _I'm_ annoying, but she's even nosier than me. She has a younger brother, and she treats me pretty much the same way..."

Call me nosy myself, but I were to guess, I'd say he sounded a little bit disappointe-

"Ohhh, you don't want her treating you like a brother, huh?" Satonaka leaned in, resting her head upon her hand as she propped an elbow on the table. "Oh, I get it. So _that's_ how it is..."

"What're you talking about?" said Hanamura, stuffing the straw in his mouth and inhaling his drink a little too strongly.

"You know what I mean!" chirped Satonaka. "The daughter of a local family-run liquor store and the scion of the invading chain… Ahh, the flame of forbidden love!"

Holy crap, Satonaka, stop trying to kill this guy. Still, I failed to stifle a small laugh, and either the comment or my laugh got a reaction from him.

"Wha- Dude, it's not like that..."

...Holy crap, he's blushing.

"You're blushing," I said, omitting the informal portions.

"I- No I'm not!" Hanamura shot back.

"Is he? Ohoho!" Satonaka said, moving around to get a better look.

"Quit it you guys, or _you'll_ be paying for your own food!" Hanamura said, slamming his palms on the table, making it rattle a bit. Seems the tables aren't the best quality. Well, at least they go well with the equally fragile-looking aluminium chairs...

Satonaka finally backed off, if only a little. She leaned back in her seat, both arms tucked behind her head. "Oh reaaally...? Well, I know just the thing to cheer up that lovesick heart!" She leaned back forward and darted her view between he two of us with those big, bright eyes. "You ever hear of the Midnight Channel?"

...

That sounds like something so irrelevant it seemed she had to shoehorn it in.

"No... Is it something like an advice show?" was the best guess I could offer.

Satonaka shook her head, seemingly glad I didn't get it right. Her voice got low and secretive. "Lemme tell you. You're supposed to look into a TV that's switched off, alone, exactly at midnight on a rainy night."

There's a lot of criteria.

"While you're staring at your own image," Satonaka continued. "...Another person will appear on the screen… And they say that person's your soulmate."

"What? For a second, I thought you were actually going to say something useful…" Hanamura seemed pretty underwhelmed, but I thought it was at least a little bit intriguing, though it _was _only my second day of learning anything substantial here... "How can you get all excited over such a childish urban legend like that?"

"Childish, huh?!" Satonaka replied. "You don't believe it, do you?!"

"What, and you do? Who _would_?" Hanamura looked at her with a disapproving expression. "Of course I don't!"

"Well!" Satonaka drank the last of her soda through the straw in the most angry way possible - which isn't a lot - before crossing her arms. "It's raining _tonight_. Let's all try it out - then you'll see!"

"Try it out...? Wait, you mean you haven't even tried it yourself?!" Hanamura looked just about ready to try and end this conversation as soon as possible. "Wow... I'm trying to remember the last time I heard something this stupid..."

And end it he did. He disregarded Satonaka and turned to me instead - just when I thought they were going to carry the rest of lunch chat themselves. "All that aside... you know that 'incident' yesterday? You guys think it was murder?"

I nodded, though in all honesty I didn't give it much thought, if any. The news last night jogged my mind, but before I knew it I was singing off-key to the Junes tune for Nanako. "I think so. Something weird like that _does_ seem more like an accident, but I still think it feels a little off..."

"Yeah, me too..." said Satonaka. "It's really not something you see every day."

"Ooh, what if the culprit behind it was still lurking around...?" said Hanamura before topping it off with the weirdest mischievous laugh I've heard, in recent memory at least.

"Sheesh, you shouldn't joke about stuff like that," chided Satonaka. She rubbed her hand against the sleeve of her other arm. "_Now_ who's the childish one?"

Satonaka did seem more solemn about this than Hanamura was, which was unexpected to me. She seemed like the more playful of the two by a mile, but I guess I've much yet to realise - about both of them.

"All I'm saying is, you guys better try it out tonight," she added, still not giving up on that idea of hers, and probably fishing for a less uncomfortable topic. "You too, new guy!"

"Okay, I don't mind." I gave a slight shrug, smiling. "It's Seta by the way, 'neighbour'."

"Oh, right, right. Sorry..." She bowed slightly and put a hand to her head in apology. "You _do_ remember how I told you it works, right?"_  
_

"Didn't bother to," Hanamura jabbed, coughing. Satonaka just puffed her cheeks at him before turning to me, hopeful.

"What about you, Seta-kun?"

...

Um...

"Rainy night..." I started.

"Yeah?" Satonaka urged me on, looking at me with those big bright eyes again. It... made it a little harder to concentrate on the already convoluted criteria for watching the thing. I tried looking away, but I didn't want to risk making her think I was breaking eye contact because I didn't know.

"Alone, at night... Midnight."

"What else?" she said, eyes getting somehow wider. For some reason I also thought she was blinking less, showing her eyes further, making me notice that they were kind of sparkly - lustrous, even. Getting more and more distracting by it. Distracted.

"Um. Night, and..."

"Dude, that's like the third time you said 'night'", said Hanamura, impatient with this urban legend puzzle.

"It has to be turned off, the TV I mean, but other than that you got all of it," Satonaka said, throwing me a bone. "Glad to see _someone_ was listening." She glared at Hanamura for emphasis.

"Really?" said Hanamura, looking a little threatened but decided to say it anyway. "I'm kinda disappointed someone _was._"

* * *

"Hey, neighbour! Wait up!"

Seta turned around when I called him. He was already almost out of the court after he cleared the table for us, and Yosuke had some work come up just as we finished. I ran up to him, waving.

"Sorry me and Yukiko couldn't walk you home yesterday."

"Oh, no problem," Seta replied, slowing to a stop so I could catch up with him. He seemed to be waiting for me to talk, so I gathered he knew what I was getting at. I continued.

"Yeah, I'm heading straight home, so if you are too, I can... maybe... make good on yesterday?"

"Oh..." Seta looked a little nervous. Was this his first time walking home with a girl? He seemed perfectly fine when Yukiko was around, though... "Okay, sure thing."

"Great! Let's go!"

We both made our way out of Junes and into the shopping district. About partway there, I found out that he wasn't staying all that far from my own house. The twists and turns in all the roads and corners I had to take were tricky, but all in all I had a basic idea of where his street was. Eventually, we passed by the Konishi liquor store, which Seta pointed out after having met Saki-senpai earlier.

"Wow, you're pretty sharp," I said, teasing him.

"Only as much as I need to be," he said sheepishly. Since Yukiko isn't around, I'm less paranoid that he's gonna pull some nasty trick on me again, and putting that incident aside, he seemed to be a pretty okay guy.

Compared to the others, he _is_ much more... _low-key_ than most - and I wouldn't exactly say boring, but he's not really a conversation starter. Or a conversation carry-onner, for that matter. He mostly just seems to say what he needs to say. It's almost like he's thinking about what he wants people to hear.

I'm not sure what it'd be like, living your life picking what you say to others, not being able to say what's in your heart... I just say whatever's on my mind. There's pretty much only like... one millisecond between a thought entering my head and it exiting my mouth. Don't think, feel - that kinda stuff, right? I guess Yukiko's more like him in that respect then...?

Hey, speaking of Yukiko...

"Unfortunately, you don't have Yukiko as part of your entourage today. What a shame, huuhh?"

Seta just gave a "Hm" while smiling.

"Well, just think of me like your police escort, then!" I said, pointing my thumb to myself.

"You'll be protecting me, then?" replied Seta, looking like he's not buying it. "I think I'll need protection from _you,_ if anything. I've seen what you did to Hanamura."

Oh boy...

"I-I was just caught in the moment, that's all!" I said in a feeble bid to defend myself. I was kinda glad Yosuke didn't bring it up today; I was feeling pretty guilty about it. Usually I don't, I admit, but I guess knowing that Seta - just the "new guy" then - was watching the entire thing made me realise just how much abuse I put that guy through. Argh... Not that you'd hear it, Yosuke, but sorry. There, you happy, conscience? Now pipe down already!

"Must be a really big moment," he laughed.

"Ugh..."

"Anyway, it's a good thing Amagi isn't here," Seta added. I froze in my steps.

"Wha... What do you mean?"

I suddenly felt kinda nervous, which was when it hit me - Seta wasn't nervous earlier because of Yukiko in particular, or not necessarily because he never walked with a girl before - it was because we were _alone_. One and one. I felt my cheeks heat up a tiny bit, like last time. I wanted to slap myself to get it to go away, but obviously that would freak Seta out if I just hit myself in public for no reason.

"I mean..." Seta dragged on.

"Hm...?"

Yeah, what is it?!

"Had Amagi been here, it would have just been another thrashing for you," he finally said, smiling wider.

Why you little...

"Hey." I raised my voice. "If you think you can turn Yukiko against me, you've got another thing coming!" I crossed my arms as we kept walking. "We've been friends since forever!"

"But she already did turn against you," said Seta. "Yesterday. She looked like she was enjoying herself just fine at your expense."

"Why you...!" I nearly snapped at him, and he surprisingly looked pretty shocked and steered the topic away.

"Sorry. Stopping."

There's still plenty I don't know about this guy, it seems. Since neither our homes were still within reach, I took this as an opportunity to learn more. I remembered something he said yesterday, after he embarrassed me in front of Yukiko, he said this weird statement, in almost a whisper. The tone was different too. It didn't sound very... well, casual. More serious. I decided to use this as my first little piece of bait to fish out more to know about Seta.

"By the way, about yesterday..." I started the topic, which drew his attention.

"Hm?" He glanced at me, prompting to go on.

"Do you remember..." I pondered on whether I wanted to tell him everything I noticed, but I went with it anyway. "You said to me that you didn't like losing."

Silence. I was quick to add more details.

"You said it really quiet too, so only I could hear it, and you sounded pretty serious, like you really meant it... What's behind that?"

Seta was in thought for a while before speaking. "You read a lot more into it than I thought you would notice."

"So, are you saying I read too much than what was actually there?" I looked up at him. "Because I do that sometimes, you know? I'll just guess and think up of random things that might not be right at all..."

Seta kept silent momentarily. "I wouldn't exactly say you read too much, and you weren't wrong either..."

"So I was right?" I said, genuinely surprised.

By then, he was already looking uncomfortable enough for me to notice. I was about to tell him to forget I said it before his expression lightened into a smile.

"I guess you'll find out if you're persistent enough."

"Oh?" I smiled back. "Are you saying I'm not?"

"No, of course not," he replied. "Rather, it's not really worth knowing. It's a petty reason."

"Petty, huh? Then... doesn't that mean you can just tell me?"

"Well..." Seta trailed off. I waited for his answer.

"Some of the pettiest things in life are also the more personal ones," Seta finally said. "Agreed?"

"Well, yeah, I guess..." I said, trying to fully understand the thought. We left it at that for the moment, and by then we were already well out of the shopping district and into the neighbourhood, not far from where I estimated the path to our houses branch off.

I took the last few moments to add something. "Still."

"Still?" Seta replied, looking like he was enjoying the silence.

"You said I can still find out if I'm persistent, right? Maybe I'll do just that."

A laugh escaped Seta's lips, obviously underestimating me. "I don't think you'd want to do that. You'll be wasting your time."

"I'll do whatever I want with my time, thank you very much," I replied back.

He shook his head, smiling. "You won't like what you end up seeing."

"Well, I'll tell you something about myself." I stood in place, hand on my hips, causing him to turn back and look. "I'm a risk-taker."

He looked at me for a while. I was expecting a retort or some smart-aleck answer, but all he did was turn slightly, beckoning me to get walking again. During that, he just said:

"If you say so."

Seta kept on walking after that, which forced me to follow. We parted ways soon after. On the way home, I wondered about Seta's last statement. Why did he go with such a plain answer? It wasn't a retort, so maybe he meant it seriously. But then, wouldn't he have stopped me...?

There was still a lot I didn't know about this guy.

And maybe... just maybe... Even if only to prove him wrong... to prove that I was persistent enough to get past his cool exterior and finally get my sweet, sweet payback on him...

I wanted to find out more.


	7. Chapter 6: The Future Mrs Seta

**A/N: **I'm sorry for the insanely long wait. I didn't have _that_ much on my plate, so you can attribute this to plain laziness. Sorry, but we'll still be going. I don't intend to leave this to decay until it's run its full course. Plus, up till this point of this fic I've been typing everything straight on FFnet's Doc Manager, due to a new PC. However, after acquiring OpenOffice, this may change for the better from this chapter onwards.

The umbrella scene was something I picked up from Golden. It was a small moment and very nice, so it's all good, but I'm not sure if the longer scenes will be added. We'll see.

* * *

Boy, midnight's sure coming up really slowly at the one time you're actually waiting for it...

My folks are fast asleep, and they don't like it when I stay up into the next morning, but I gotta try this out! I'll just have to keep quiet and make sure the lights are off. Seated on my bed, I looked straight at my little box of a TV, sitting on my cabinet stacked full with DVDs.

Waiting for the moments to midnight to tick by, I began wondering about why I wanted so badly to check this thing out. Sure, Yosuke being the idiot he was can make you get defensive about _anything_, but all I did was find out about this Midnight Channel thing online... Am I _that_ curious about who's my soulmate?

I shook my head to... myself I guess. That can't be it. If it was just about me, why did I tell Seta and Yosuke about it? Yukiko I get, because I was curious about her soulmate too, but all it took was Yosuke to mention his crush on Konishi-senpai to get me talking.

I guess I really _do_ get gung-ho about this stuff without me realising...

My train of thought was interrupted by the sound of static, its crackling making a faint echo throughout my room. I immediately checked my phone, and it was midnight. Oh wow, so it actually _worked_?! I gotta call Yukiko and tell her about this before it - Aah, there's no time!

I got off my bed and onto my knees, scurrying close to the TV. I took a quick look behind the cabinet to confirm that my TV was definitely turned off. Usually I don't bother, but I totally unplugged the thing for tonight just to make sure it was for real. Trying not to waste any more time, I scrambled on my knees and almost fell over myself before going back to the TV, which was still spewing static. The screen itself was bathed with a white, ghostly glow which made my room look like a noir detective movie - the dim white light clashing against the harsh shadows of the objects in my room. I squinted, trying to discern any kind of detail... when I saw someone.

I kinda recognised our school's uniform on the person, so hey, I'm gonna meet my soulmate in my high school years! That was quicker than I thought!

Wait, no... the figure, whose face was blurred out, kept moving around, and the shot kept changing, but... is that the _girl__s'_ uniform? And is that... long hair...?

My soulmate's a... girl?!

"B-But I'm straight!" I yelped before quickly stuffing my hand into my mouth. Idiot, don't wake mom and dad up!

I lowered my voice, continuing to observe the girl for what seemed like minutes. I grabbed my TV set, palming my hands on its sides and shook it. All it did was make me continually more confused.

"Hey!" I hissed. "This has gotta be a mistake! My soulmate can't be a girl! I'm straight, darn you!"

Still staring right at the image, I could tell that the girl's long hair as wavy, around shoulder-length... but that was all I could make out. Eventually, the image disappeared, and my TV went blank again, as if it never turned on in the first place. My room became totally dark again.

I let go of my TV and sat there in front of it for a long while. "At least... I _thought_ I was..."

I pounced onto my bed and wrestled with the sheets like a lion tearing into a hapless gazelle. "Argh! This can't be right! Don't mess with me, you stupid Midnight Channel! Why did I ever want to check you out? I should have never went online that day! You suck, you hear me? You _suck_!"

"Chie!" I heard mom's muffled voice yelling from the other side of the door, making me jump so high off the bed I actually got hang time. "Stop making a ruckus and go to bed! You can practise your kung-fu speeches tomorrow!"

"But Mom, I'm not-" I sputtered, before giving up in utter frustration and burying myself under every square inch of sheets I could get my hands on. "Sorry! G'night!"

Hearing mom's footsteps disappearing down the stairs, I peeked my head out from under my blanket and stared at the featureless ceiling. I was gay and I didn't even know it...

"I was hoping for a guy..." I mumbled, the blanket covering my mouth. "I mean, I only _had_ a guy in mind. This is crazy...!"

I decided not to think about it too much and tried to sleep. Hopefully, Yosuke and Seta didn't get to check, didn't see anything or forget to bring it up tomorrow. Trying to explain this to them... I wouldn't hear the end of it from _either_ of them. Not even thinking about how Yukiko would think. I bet she'll go all "I respect you, Chie, no matter who you like" on me. That's not what I want, for crying out loud! I wasn't expecting a life-turning revelation to come out of a stinking stupid rumour...!

The worst part is I _knew_ what some of the girls in class thought of me. Because I was such a tomboy, there were already rumours during first year that I'm so comfortable with guys because I don't like any of them that way... Add that with me being with Yukiko all the time, and my non-girliness stood out all the more...

If I could have cried myself to sleep that night, I would have. Unfortunately, I was too busy dying inside from distress over how to handle this tomorrow.

But many long minutes passed, and I still couldn't sleep. I was... disappointed that I was gay all along. Not because of anything else but the fact that it seemed... so obvious. I thought that I could be the girl who was the only tomboy in school _and_ straight at the same time. I was disappointed that I kinda proved all the rumours right...

Man, what a stupid way to think.

I buried my face in my pillow. I've had it with this.

"Rrrgh, forget it! You're Chie Satonaka! Buck up!"

I made up my mind. I resolved that whatever happened, I would keep my head high. I can get through this! It's... a new lifestyle, but nothing I can't handle!

And besides, I can always just kick the boys to everywhere and back if they try to say anything tomorrow...

* * *

"Perfect timing! Sorry, move over!"

It was drizzling when I left the house, so I brought my umbrella with me. Satonaka, however, did not, and just as soon as she called me, she forced her way under my umbrella. I was startled at the sudden breach of space, but not exactly... well, put off by it.

She was aware of what she was doing though, and she spoke in her own defense. "Oh... I did have my own, but I saw this kung-fu movie...?"

I beckoned for her to continue.

"...Where they used an umbrella to pull off some sweet moves..."

I gave her a blank stare.

"And... yeah... I accidentally broke mine trying to mimic the movie."

What an honest person.

While we were walking, Satonaka tensed up. "By the way... Did you see it?!"

She sounded pretty excited about it, but upon proper inspection, she was looking at me with expectancy, and there was a tinge of nervousness to her expression that she didn't even bother to hide. I wonder who did Satonaka see? Was it someone she didn't like? Still, I couldn't pretend what happened yesterday didn't happen - I had the throbbing in the back of my head to prove it.

"I did."

"Aha, do tell," she said, laughing it off. "But the person it showed..."

I saw some students walking, to our left where Satonaka couldn't see them - giving curious looks to us. Two girls in particular were laughing and chattering at the sight of us.

Oh dear.

"Never mind," Satonaka finally said. "I'll save it for when the others are around. W-We're gonna be late for school!"

"Well, okay then." We continued towards the school in silence. Her right shoulder brushed against my umbrella hand a few times. I held my bag to my side a little tighter than I normally did.

As we got nearer the school, more students were around. More took notice of us sharing an umbrella as we drew closer to the school grounds. Now that she wasn't speaking to me, she noticed this as well.

"Oh, U-Uhh..."

We both stopped.

"I-It's kinda awkward to only bring this up now, but... we're pretty close here..."

"It was already awkward when you came in." was my immediate reply. I added "To be honest" to not sound too harsh.

"Well, sorry..." She kept her head down and her voice soft. "I was running all the way here like a crazed chicken, and when I saw you, I figured you wouldn't mind..."

She seemed genuine at first, but then she sounded a little bit too melodramatic. "But now, you just want to leave me in the rain and get wet..."

Don't you dare play the guilt card on me, Satonaka.

Because it almost always works anytime someone does it to me.

She laughed at my plight before I could answer. "Anyway, I'll get out of your hair, pronto. Let's see..." It was still drizzling, and Satonaka was apparently looking for an opening. Now that she mentioned it, she was right. Dark specks on the shoulders of her jacket, plus the sheen of water to her hair and face suggest that she was running all the way from her home. I only noticed all that detail because she's so close, but I digress.

She retracted a hand into her sleeve and wiped her cheek. "U-Um, I'm gonna just go ahead and run the rest of the way, okay?"

"Um..."

"It's not that far to the gate. Well, seeya!"

"H-Hey, Satonaka-"

I grabbed the elbow portion of her sleeve, but she took off so suddenly that I got dragged a good three feet forward. She made an abrupt stop when she found out she was tugging me along.

"Sorry!" Satonaka turned around while I tried to recover. "What is it?"

"It's," I huffed. "It's okay."

I extended my umbrella over Satonaka's head and took a step closer. "Don't worry about it."

"Huh...? Are you sure?"

I nodded, and feeling unusually brave, I swallowed and shuffled closer towards her to cover both of us, as if to assert my point. I noticed Satonaka's vision trailing as more students walked by us with interest, but with quick reflexes and unexpected tact she shifted her entire attention to me to give me an appreciative smile.

"If you say so then... I guess it's okay."

She really does have a sweet smile.

I cocked my head to the people. "You don't mind the... you know?"

She shook her head, which was close enough that little droplets of water struck my jacket. "Eh, it's no big deal. But... thanks."

I politely smiled in return. Satonaka doesn't seem terribly affected by what other people think of her. If that's the case, it's possible that she wanted to run all the way earlier not out of our alleged awkwardness, but... concern for my own image? In the end, I decided not to dwell too much on this little mystery. "It's no problem."

Satonaka nodded. "Great! Alright, let's go."

* * *

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little flustered earlier in the morning with Seta... We were pretty close, and I counted at least five people who saw us outside. Worse still, we both walked to class together without realising it, laughing and talking about little stuff while practically everyone in the corridors and our class might have seen us - two of which are questioning me right now.

"Chie, we saw you walking to school with the transfer student today..."

"Already taking the initiative, are we?"

This was one of those times I wanted class to start already. Seta was already at class, while these two, Misaki and Touko, hounded me while I was drying off in the girls' restroom.

"You got it all wrong, guys." I sighed, taking off my jacket. I decided to omit my little accident at home. "I... forgot my umbrella, and it just so happened I saw Seta on the way."

"Oh, I see..." said Misaki, checking her eyes in the mirror.

Touko was always the more persistent of the two, and she's very happy to prove it. "So what, did he offer it to you? The umbrella I mean?"

"Huh? Oh, um, no..." I said. "He happened to be on the way, and since he was the only person I recognised on the way... I pushed under his umbrella. You know me."

"Right, right, that makes sense!" Touko said, laughing. "That just means he was too scared you'd beat him up if he didn't let you!"

"Hey, that hurts," I joked. "Anyways, leave him alone. Seta was just being nice."

"Ooh, defending your knight in shining umbrella?" said Misaki. "Sharing it like a pair of lovers... Watch out, or the other girls will give you the evil eye! He's the talk of the school right now, you know!"

"Ugh, like I said...!" I wanted to say before they burst into laughter.

"We get it, we get it!" they said in unison as they left the bathroom. "See you in class, Mrs. Seta!"

I waited for the sounds of their footsteps to fade out into the corridor before slamming my fists onto the sink.

"UGH! I'd dropkick the two of them into the river if I could!"

* * *

I quickly washed my face and dried off before returning to class, just in time for Sofue-sensei's first history lesson of the year. As I went to sit by Seta, I noticed Misaki and Touko giving weird looks and winks to me. Ugh, gimme a break...

"You look distressed," said Seta, while Sofue-sensei was coming in. "Is everything okay?"

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing." I waved it off, hoping he didn't notice those two.

"You didn't catch a cold, did you?"

I froze a little at his concern. "I... no! It's nothing like that. Really!"

Seta didn't seem convinced. "Hm. Don't tell me..."

"Don't... tell you what?" I said, trying to smile as innocently as I could.

"It's about yesterday, isn't it? Perhaps you saw your soulmate, and didn't like what you-"

"Our transferee, Mr. Seta, please stand up," announced Sofue-sensei from the front of the class, causing Seta to quit prying and answer her question.

"Oh, um..." He mumbled while Sofue-sensei quizzed him.

I smirked a little, knowing that he'll get it wrong since he was too busy questioning-

"Anno Domini was when Jesus was born, and the year before 1 AD is... 1 BC."

"Ah, you seem to understand this well..." Sofue-sensei said, pleased, and my jaw loosened a bit in utter disbelief. He sat back down, apparently ignoring the rest of the class also taking note of his stellar achievement.

Misaki and Touko, who were to my right, whispered to me while snickering. "Wow, the transfer student really is something, Chie! Lucky you!"

I just tried to swat them off. "Sshhh!"

Still, how did he...

"How did you..." I ignored them and questioned Seta as he settled back into his seat.

He just smiled. "I have two ears, you know."

"But-"

"Anyway, about earlier..."

"Ugh, you remember."

"You _were_ the one to bring it up just now..."

"Fine, fine! What is it?" I lifted my hands in defeat - just a little so Sofue-sensei wouldn't see.

"Don't worry," he replied. "Like you said, we should save it for after school. We should concentrate."

"Right, okay. No problem with that." We both faced forward to listen to the lesson. However, Seta spoke again, coughing.

"Or rather, _you_ should. I've heard stories of your grades from classmates."

This guy really knows how to make a girl wanna punch him. He's like Yosuke, but more calculating. Like a serial killer with words or something.

"Hey, I'm not booksmart, okay? You should see me during PE class! I can kick your butt at any sport, any time!"

"I don't deny that," he said, admitting quick defeat, oddly enough. "I probably can't throw a punch to save my life."

"Hmph!" I grinned. "Maybe I'll save yours one day? Who knows?"

He just laughed. "Who knows. Still..."

"Hm? Still what?"

"I do want to hear about this soulmate of yours later. Don't forget."

"Ugh..."

* * *

Classes are finally done, and I saw Yosuke talking to Seta with a worried look. I wondered if he saw something he wasn't expecting last night too... I decided not to bring that up just yet and start with what's been circulating among the other girls in our year about someone very relevant to Yosuke.

"Hey guys! Yosuke, did you hear the rumour?"

Seta already saw me coming, but Yosuke looked pretty surprised. "Huh?"

"I heard Saki-senpai's the one who discovered that body." I said. "What do you think? You think it may be true?"

"Huh... I don't know," Yosuke trailed off, thoughtful, talking more to himself than to me. "I wonder if that's why she looked so down... She doesn't seem to be at school today either..."

Oh, so that's why he seemed so worried just now? I went over to him and slapped him on the shoulder, prompting a jolt from him. "Oh, cheer up, will ya! Whether it's true or not, if Saki-senpai's feeling down, you could be right there to lift her spirits, eh, big boy?"

"Oh, leave me alone," Yosuke jabbed back, swatting my hand away. I laughed it off, and Seta offered him a supportive smile. Just then, I noticed Yukiko was about to leave, on the other side while we were at Seta's desk. "Huh? Hey Yukiko, are you helping out at the inn today, too?" I beckoned for her to come over. "Come on! We can grab a bite with the guys!"

Her eyes lit up a little, but then she held her head down in apology. "Things are really out of hand right now... I'm sorry." With that, she retreated from the classroom, looking pretty disappointed she couldn't come.

Man, Yukiko's not like us other girls at all. While we're having fun, she has to be worried about all this stuff. I feel really sorry for her sometimes...

"Is it just me," Yosuke said. "Or does Yukiko-san seem way stressed out today?"

"I guess they're running her ragged..." All I could do was sigh, feeling a little helpless that I can't even help my best friend with all that stress being piled onto her. "But what else can we do...? It's her family..."

As I turned around, I noticed that Seta looked like he was about to seriously pursue that question, so I decided to shift the topic.

"By the way..." I looked back and forth between both of them. "Did you see... it... last night?"

"Huh...?" said Yosuke, nervous. "Uh, well... What about you?"

"I did!" Well, here we go... "I seriously saw a girl!" Whether my soulmate's a girl or not, I _was_ curious about what the others saw. I wanted to know if they had any answers to this. Maybe there was a mix-up at the Midnight Channel matchmaking office or something?

"But... my soulmate's a girl?" I continued. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Like a scene out of a sitcom, Yosuke and Seta turned to each other and exchanged a very telling look at the same time. Geez, I can already tell exactly what they're thinking of...

I felt my nerves taking over, and I cut them off before they could say anything. "I-I couldn't quite tell who it was, but it was a girl for sure... "

I held my hand up to count my fingers. "Let's see... Her hair was brown, about shoulder length... She was wearing our school uniform, too, and..."

I struggled further to recall any more details from that blurry image I saw, but Yosuke cut me off.

"Hey... I think that's the same person _I_ saw." Yosuke snapped his fingers. "I couldn't make out that much detail, though. The image I saw was much blurrier, but it was the same person for sure. The details match up perfectly!"

"H-Huh? Wait, so you saw it too?!" I said, raising my voice with wild abandon. I pointed back and forth between me and Yosuke. "And we saw the same girl...? Does that mean... we have the same soulmate?!"

"H-How should I know?" Yosuke barked back, almost as put off by this as I am. Wait, so am I... bi now? No, not just that, but... with _Yosuke_?! Wh... Why?! What...

"Um..." Yosuke turned his utmost, full attention to anyone other than me, and Seta happened to be closest. "How 'bout you? Did you see it?"

Seta just looked blankly at both of us. "Um..."

"Well?" I asked, prodding further. "Don't tell me you saw the same person too?!"

"Actually, I did..."

"What?! We can't all have the same soulmate!" I said in disbelief, ignoring anybody else in the class. "That's just weird!"

"Will you keep it down?" Yosuke said, exasperated. "That soulmate crap is probably made-up, anyway." He crossed his arms and faced Seta. "Still, we can't deny that that weird stuff really did happen, so Chie, your story's not complete rubbish either..."

"Y-Yeah, but...!"

I... I felt my sleeve being tugged.

Seta was holding it gently at the edge of the sleeve, just inches from my hand. "You need to calm down..." He was about to say something else, but just said "Satonaka." The suddenness of that action put me at ease almost immediately. He then let go just as gently as he held on.

Seta is weird in his own little ways... He can be such a pain, but also... After this and the umbrella just now...

He's also kinda... unexpectedly nice.

"I think Hanamura's right," he said. "There's definitely something to your story, but I don't think all of it's to be believed. This soulmate thing is one of them."

"Right..." I held that same hand to my face, laughing. "Sorry about that. I guess you're right."

"Someone probably just made it up just to find some kind of reason," said Yosuke. "Plus, all this romantic fortune-telling crud? Girls will probably eat it up! I just wasn't expecting _you_ of all the girls to like that sort of thing..."

"Oh, can it, Yosuke," I said. "You were pretty worried too, when you learned we all have the same 'soulmate'."

"Yeah, yeah," Yosuke replied. "You were _way_ more flustered about it, What's wrong? You-"

"Um..." Seta interrupted. "Are you two sure you... didn't see anything else?"

"Huh?" I said. "No..."

"What, like what we _already_ saw wasn't weird enough?" said Yosuke. "Why, did you see something else?"

"Yeah, tell us!" I said, trying to encourage him. "Maybe we can figure this weird urban legend out!"

Seta let out a deep breath, not making eye contact. "Well, besides the girl, there was..."

Yosuke and me listened, our silence persuading him to continue. Seta paused for a while...

And then proceeded to tell the weirdest story I've heard all month.

* * *

**A/N:** I made some pretty intolerable typos and errors, but they should be fixed now. I have a habit of ninja-editing within the day after publishing, so please don't feel paranoid if what you read now doesn't match what you first read. Thanks for reading, as always.


	8. Chapter 7: Three Days and Counting

**A/N:** We're finally going into the TV!

* * *

Okay, so it seems that – as expected – neither Satonaka nor Hanamura believed me.

I don't blame them – I barely believed it myself. I don't like it one bit. I couldn't help but feel this is all connected to that whole Igor thing...

Anyway, I was thinking about that for most of the trip to Junes. Both of them were too busy talking to each other to bother with me, which meant I had plenty more time to dwell on it. By the time I got tired thinking about it, we've already arrived, and Satonaka was aiming for a new TV. Both of them were in front of a particularly big flat-screen, and were pressing their palms against the blank display.

"Nope," said Hanamura. "Can't get in. Figures."

"Haha, this proves it!" Satonaka looked over to me. "It was all just a dream."

Look missy, I know a dream when I have one. And since I've moved here, I know several _weird_ dreams when I have them.

"Besides," said Hanamura. "These flat-screen TVs are so thin, you'd just end up on the other side... Argh, what am I saying?!"

They don't believe me at all.

While the both of them headed off to find something within the means of Satonaka's family, I took a look at the TV they were inspecting, which also happened to be the largest and widest in the entire electronics section. As Hanamura said earlier in class, they really might be big enough for me to fit into...

I rested my palm on the screen like they did just now.

* * *

"Well, Miss, might I suggest this one over here?" said Yosuke, spreading his arms out to showcase one of the TVs there. "It's the newest model, just released this spring..."

Man, it was a good thing Yosuke was nice enough to take this effort to show me what kind of TVs Junes had. I mean, _sure_, he's gonna profit from it, but you can't deny he's a good salesperson...

It's just that no amount of sweet-talking could justify the price of that thing.

"Wha- that's not cheap at all! There's waaay too many zeroes!"

Yosuke just groaned and looked to the side, the tone of his voice mixed with both frustration and disappointment. "I should've asked what you mean by 'cheap' right off the bat."

Well it's not my fault it costs so much! My folks were never the spending type, either. I tried to plead to his softer side, on put on my best customer face.

"You've got connections, right? C'mooon, hook me up!"

"What do I look like to you, a mob boss?" Yosuke responded, pacing further along the aisle. "You know I can't do that..."

"But you _are_ the manager's son..."

"Yeah, well the title of _Manager's Son_ doesn't equal _Discount Coupon_, okay...?" Yosuke moved to another one and pointed to it, which was a little bulkier but nowhere near as boxy as the super old one sitting in my room. "Hey, how about this one over here? It's a display unit and it's a little old, but..."

"Wow, really?" I looked over to it - it had fancy lights and looked really sleek, which combined with the price and the fact that Yosuke was still stepping _down _the price range made me feel very financially inferior. "It's still too much... I was expecting you to show me those big, boxy ones... Those are cheap, right?"

"Dude, no one sells those anymore... Well, no one who wants to compete in the electronics business anyway." Yosuke said with what I guess is an air of city-dweller pride. "Maybe you can find what you're looking for in some other place... Like a bargain bin."

Okay, now you're just offending me here.

"Hey, if anything, _you_ guys don't have good business sense," I said, my patriotism for Inaba suddenly flaring up from literally nowhere. "You know you're selling in a rural area, yet you don't sell cheaper stuff?"

"Hey, don't lump us all together as corporate stiffs..." Yosuke said, crossing his arms. "Take it to them, not me. I'm just an honest man, looking to earn his living."

"Yeah, right! Still... fine, sorry about that."

"So you're not gonna buy anything?"

"Ugh, I'll just go home and report to my folks what you showed me," I said, trying to take mental note of the prices, hoping not to get all the zeroes mixed up. "But knowing them, chances are pretty slim..."

"Well, let me know. Bring them here if you like - who knows, maybe I can persuade them - with discounts, if I absolutely have to..."

"Really? Thanks a bunch!"

"No probs." Yosuke said, nodding in a satisfied manner. After seeing my situation's been settled for now, Yosuke turned to check up on Seta, whom I hadn't heard a single noise from. I guess he must've been disappointed we didn't buy his dream story just now at class.

"Oh yeah, Seta, what kind of TV do you-"

I mean, getting sucked into his TV? I mean, it sure was realistic that only his head would fit into that little thing, but still... Seta must have some _really_ vivid dreams, and _really_ interesting nights to boot...

I stopped thinking when I noticed Yosuke looked really freaked out. He was all bug-eyed, with his mouth open.

"Huh? Something wrong, Yosuke?"

I turned around to check out what was freaking him out so much, but all I saw was Seta-

W-Wait! I-Is his arm in the-

"I-Is his arm... in the TV...?" said Yosuke.

That's what I wanted to say! C-Calm down, I must be seeing things, or...

"Whoa..." was all I could begin with. The sight of Seta's hand half inside the TV, with the same ripple effect he was describing with an oddly excessive attention to detail earlier today hit my brain pretty hard. "Uhh... Is that some kinda... new model? L-like with a new function? Haha..."

With a "Hell no!" Yosuke took off with a burst of speed to where Seta was, and I definitely followed suit.

* * *

Oh, shit.

Crap, my hand... it's stuck. Pull it out, pull it out-

I heard the footsteps of my two companions rushing towards me. Shit.

I was disappointed they didn't believe me at first, but now I totally, completely regret proving myself right. I helplessly stared as Satonaka stood to my right, and Yosuke ran past her to flank my left side.

"You gotta be kidding me..." said Satonaka. "Did you really stick your hand through the screen?

I didn't want to look at her, so I turned to focus my full attention on removing my hand. If I pull it out now, they might still think they were seeing things. Come on, come on...

"Oh man... This is for real... That's some magic trick, man!" said Hanamura in unwanted amazement. He came in closer to inspect where my hand entered. "So how's it work, huh?! What's the magician's secret?!"

Stop looking so closely! You're supposed to think this as a hallucination! Dammit, come lose...

Finally, I feel the intense pressure within the TV letting go, and I was able to remove my arm. But by then, it was already too late. They both have a look of utter astonishment on their faces. There's no tying to convince them otherwise now.

Curiosity and a great desire to run away overcame me. I didn't want to answer their questions, and running out on them seemed impossible. The only other way was to...

"H-Hey, don't do that!" Hanamura yelled. "What're you doing?!"

Do something that was -in hindsight - really stupid.

I barely heard Satonaka. Everything was muffled from the outside. I looked around, but all I saw were thick masses of... fog? Clouds, perhaps?

...

Crap, my head...

It's stuck.

"C-Can you hear me?" I said, raising my voice.

"Y-Yeah, man!" stammered Hanamura. "What's going on? What do you see?"

"Um... There's a lot more empty space inside... than I would've expected."

I couldn't discern anything from Hanamura's words other than "Mean... Inside?!" and "Mean... space?!" from Satonaka.

Using my arms, which were supporting me from outside, I tried to use them to brace myself and try to pull my head out, but it's proving way more difficult than even that time my head got stuck last night.

"H-Hey... are... okay?" I heard Satonaka say. "You're n... choking... you?"

You're not choking, are you?

"R-Relax!" I said. "It's actually seems very spacious in here, heheh..."

That wasn't even a properly serviceable laugh.

"Wh-What... mean, 'spacious'?!" said Hanamura.

This time, I was able to fully discern Satonaka's words.

"I mean, what's going on?!"

Hanamura said something afterwards, but I couldn't get what he just said. Did he just say "bladder"? I must have misheard him.

"What the-? Are you gonna pee your pants?!" Satonaka yelled with full coherency.

Wait, he's _what_?!

H-Hey! Don't do that here, Hanamura! I can't dodge you if you do that!

I proceeded to heave with all my might, and my neck was able to move out just slightly, but my head was still stuck at just below my ears.

"H-Hey...!" I said. "Could you two help pull me-"

"I've... holding it... all day!" said Hanamura. Dammit, Satonaka was right.

"I-I havent... chance... go!" he continued. After that, I heard a loud scream from him. "Aaarrgh! Can't... hold it... anymore!"

I became very scared, and started pushing _into_ the TV to escape the blast zone. It seemed much easier to do so, and so I was about to push further in when I looked down... and saw infinite nothing. The fog completely obscured the bottom.

Get urine on my clothes, or die from a fall...

...I refocused my efforts to pulling my head out.

"C-Calm down!" I said, again raising my voice. It might've just been my imagination and the stress, but the fog grew thicker, while at the same time the pressure was increasing on my neck, making me struggle with my speech. "H-Help pull me out and-"

I heard his footsteps leaving his post beside me and heading to the far left of the store. Then I heard him coming right back, even quicker, and with the same frantic, irregular pace.

"Shit! Customers! They're coming!"

_WHAT?!_

Satonaka started panicking, too. "Whaaa-! But we've got a guy half stuck in the TV here!"

"Like I said-!" I wanted to say, but was stopped halfway by the pressure on my throat, making me cough out. "H...! Help me out and-!"

"Wh-What're we gonna do?!" Satonaka said.

"I said..." was all I could manage, wheezing. My vision began to blur, and all I heard was the fading sound of their frantic footsteps...

Before I was suddenly jolted back to full consciousness by being crashed into from outside, the force finally freeing my head... in the wrong direction.

* * *

"What the?! W-Wai-WHOA!"

Yosuke's screaming was all I heard through the wind rushing by my ears. We're falling! We're seriously falling! I don't wanna die!

The adrenaline filled me so much that it burst out of my mouth in a scream. "AAAAAHH!"

I couldn't see Yosuke at all, but I did see Seta in mid-fall just below, his back facing me. He seemed so motionless for a moment that I thought he might've fainted.

"S-Seta-kun!"

Suddenly, hearing my voice above him, he turned around and looked really dumbfounded. I was trying to process the situation too, but the fear kept overpowering it. All I could manage was calling out to Seta.

"A-Are you okay-"

Seta looked past me, but then back to me. Spreading his body out, he was able to reach upwards and grab my hand, firmly locking it within his. He then guided me aside, kept me above him and went past me. This repositioning allowed me to see that he was about to grab Yosuke, who was behind my line of sight just now.

Looking down only made me ten times more scared, so I closed them and tried to think of how to break my fall. C-Calm down, Chie! How does it go? Relax your body, protect your head, a-and-"

Just as soon as I tried doing that, probably not even in the space of ten seconds since we fell, I felt my butt hit the ground. Hard.

"Ow!" I heard both of the boys hit the ground first. Finally on a solid surface, I was eternally grateful to be alive and actually... oddly unhurt. Just a little sore, but really nothing else.

"Rrgh..." I heard Yosuke behind me. "Ow, I landed right on my wallet..."

"Man... Where the heck are we?" I finally said, words returning to me, but just barely exiting through my mouth since my it and my entire body were still shaking from that rush just now.

Having regained some of our composure, we got back on our feet. "What is this place?" I faced Yosuke. "Some place inside Junes?"

"Hell no it isn't" said Yosuke, brushing the dust off the back of his pants. "I mean, we fell through a TV!"

"Actually, uh... what _is_ going on here?" Yosuke finally said, trailing off. While he was looking around in every direction outwards, I noticed Seta slowly moving his gaze over whatever's ahead of him, before he turned and made eye contact with me. I tightened the grip of my hand, the one he held just now - my palm sweaty from nervousness - though now I'm more confused than anything right now.

This place is really surreal... There's tons of thick yellow fog everywhere, and it looks like the air is made of static. Is this what the inside of a TV really looks like? Am I just hallucinating? Dreaming? _Dead_?!

"Haa... So... uh..." I started. "We're still alive... right?"

Seta took a few breaths before inhaling deeply and sighing. He took his attention away from this mysterious place and towards the only familiar sight around: us. "Are you guys okay?"

Man, is he calm or what...

"I think my butt's cracked now..." said Yosuke.

"Of course it is!" I snapped. "I mean, we fell all this way!" I calmed down and let out a sigh. "Still... At least we're alive..."

"Whoa!" said Yosuke, startling Seta and me.

"Wh-What now?!" I said, reeling. "Did you wet your pants?!"

"No, stupid!" Yosuke snapped back in his defence. "look around!"

There was a break in the fog, and I managed to make out huge metal girders towering above us, along with horizontal beams with wires entangling them, with staircases and catwalks going in every direction - all of them radiating from what we're standing on - a big, square stage. Drawn on the stage is a big black-and-white bulls-eye, and on top of _that_ are creepy drawings of bodies, like the chalk outline ones you see on police dramas. I scooted closer to the guys at that unsettling last sight.

"Is this... a studio...?" I waved my hand to disperse the fog, but all it did was make it dance around my hand. "All this fog... Or is it smoke?"

I turned to Yosuke, hoping for answers. "There's no place like this in Inaba, is there...?"

"Hell no..." said Yosuke, just as on edge as I am. "But man... this place is huge..."

Fear was building up and creeping up my spine. Yosuke didn't know anything, and I'm sure the new guy would know even less, but I needed to know something. Anything! I turned to Seta, my voice shaking. "What're we gonna do?"

Seta looked at me with clear concern in his eyes. He searched around a little, but eventually his sights were fixed on me again. "Let's go home."

"G-Good plan!" I managed, sighing. We gotta brainstorm on how to get outta this place! "Look, we need to get home and-!"

I turned around to survey the area. It was really creepy, looking out into this alien place. The only relief I felt was that I had two of my friends right behind me. But...

"H-Huh?"

"Wh-What's wrong?" said Yosuke.

I faced the other two again. "Wait a minute... Which way did we come in from?" My voice got shaky again, trying my hardest not to think of the dreadful possibility that we could be totally stuck here. "I don't see a way in... or out!"

Seta and Yosuke looked around and noticed it too. Reaching the same conclusion, Yosuke got really angry, but there was an obvious fear in his voice too... the same with me. "What?! That can't be right! H-How could that be?!"

"I don't know! Don't ask me!" I yelled back. I knew he was just as scared as I was, but I just completely lost it and couldn't control myself. I even felt my eyes getting teary.

"I can't take this anymore! I... I wanna go home!"

"Okay... so how?!" Yosuke blurted back. If I wasn't so scared, I could've just punched his lights out then and there...

Just then, Seta put a hand on Yosuke's shoulder - but stepped closer towards me.

"Let's calm down. First and foremost."

Seta's display of sheer calmness planted our sense right back into us. "Y-You're right." Yosuke said, taking a deep breath. "Okay... okay."

Seta removed his hand, and Yosuke pressed his fingers to his temples in thought. He finally spoke up, and while his voice was still shaky, it was way less than just now. "Let's calm down... and think about this." A look of newfound determination washed over him, which helped me calm down better too. "Alright, so we need to find a way out."

"Is there really a way out of here...?" I questioned, getting really desperate for answers despite having already calmed down by no small amount.

Yosuke sighed. "We got in... so we must be able to get out somehow.

"That's true, but..."

"If there's no exit, we're trapped, so let's cross our fingers and look around," Yosuke reasoned.

Gee, when Yosuke's calm, he really knows what logical steps to take... I can barely think of anything...! To say nothing of Seta... while he still looked pretty worried, he was really composed all the way till now. I feel like such a load...

But...! I'm not gonna give up! _We're_ not! We all nodded in agreement and decided to stick together and search for a way out.

* * *

Eventually, all three of us found ourselves walking down a corridor, a floor up on some sort of hotel. To think that there was an entire building here... and the vague silhouette of what looks like the rest of a town just in our view... Just what kind of place is this...?

"What is this place...?" said Satonaka from the back of our group. "It feels different from where we were before..."

"It looks like we're in some kinda building but... Damn, this fog's so thick, I can hardly see." said Hanamura, to my left side. We all looked out over to the 'town'. The sky was especially eerie. It had no clouds, but instead was made entirely of a continually moving pattern of black and blood-red stripes, moving at a slow speed across the sky. That sight is what put me off the most about this place.

We spot that same pattern on a door waiting at the end of the corridor we're on, only the colours were more intense. The pattern radiated outwards from within it. Seeing it's the only other way we can go but back, Satonaka got worried.

"Are you sure we're not wandering farther away?" said Satonaka.

"I can't be positive, but we've gotta trust our instinct a little..." said Hanamura.

"I know, but..."

"He's right," I said. "That door might be our way out."

"It's so creepy-looking, though," said Satonaka. "Like everything else in here..."

"Then I'll go first," I said, a little frustrated over Satonaka's lack of cooperation. I knew she was scared, but at least Hanamura was willing to contribute in a positive manner.

"I'll go, too," said Hanamura, further proving my point. "I'll be right behind you in case you get sucked in or something.

I nodded at him, having been put a little more at ease by his concern. "Agreed." I turned to Satonaka. "If you want, you can wait here while we check."

"Wha?! B-But-"

"Don't worry," I interrupted. "Just call out to us if there's anything." I turned to Hanamura. "Let's go."

For all the toughness Satonaka seemed to showcase, it seemed she had very little of it in an actually serious situation. I admit, I was pretty disappointed. I mean, I know: she's just a teenager - but so were Hanamura and me. There's no way in hell I was leaving her behind, but I wasn't going to give her piggyback rides either.

The completely opaque mass substituting for the entrance's door meant I couldn't see anything past it. I closed my eyes by instinct as I poked my head into the strange portal, with Hanamura holding me firmly by the shoulder in case I needed to be pulled out. Just as I did so, I heard Satonaka.

"W-W-Wait! I'm coming too!"

The portal felt like a very thin film of water - like when you first breach the surface of a pool when you go inside, or when you dip your finger in a glass of water. I saw what looks like a hotel room - in other words, something that's not unexpected, for once.

I motioned for Hanamura to come in, and we both entered together. We had to navigate a very short corridor that branched off to a bathroom. After seeing that the bathroom was of no worthy note, we continued down the corridor until we arrived at the only room - situated right at the end. The door was already open, so we entered.

In this room, there was a bed by a large window with its curtains drawn. Above the bed were bookshelves. Nothing out of the ordinary other than the weird static permeating the air.

"Hey, is it me or is the fog lighter here?" said Hanamura.

I only realised it when he said it, but... yeah. Our vision was definitely much clearer. There was little to no fog here, only static. But still... why did my head not feel clearer...? I've been finding it hard to think very well since we landed here, and it only got worse from us exploring this place in search for an escape route out of here.

In a genius move, Hanamura took his cellphone out in a bid to call for help. However, we weren't rewarded well.

"No service. What a surprise..."

"Can't you guys slow down a little?" said Satonaka from behind us as Hanamura kept his cellphone back. "It's hard enough to see where you're going..."

Because of us hearing her voice, we turned around. But because we turned around, we were treated with a very unwelcome sight.

We were back to the unexpected, back to the out of the ordinary, and to the unsettling? More so. _Much_ more so.

* * *

"Huh? What the...?!"

The two walls the boys were facing looked pretty normal, but the other side was a completely different story. There were identical posters of what looks like a woman covering the walls. But the worse part was that in each and every one, her face was violently slashed to nothing...

Not to mention the weird red splatters all across the walls and over the nearby wardrobe, spilling onto the floor. At first, my heart sank at the thought that it might've been blood - and that we were in the middle of a super-psycho murder scene, but then I saw the biggest splatter there was a bright yellow.

"Phew, it's just paint..." I sighed in relief.

"Oh, yeah," I heard Seta say. "These posters were above the bookshelf at the bed as well. How on earth did I miss those...?"

"It keeps getting creepier and creepier the further we go..." said Yosuke... just a little bit of time before he had to bring the most inappropriate thing up.

"Aargh! I can't hold it any longer... My bladder's gonna explode!"

Yosuke zoomed past me and went to a wall. I heard him unzipping his pants.

"Yosuke?! What're you doing?!"

"I gotta let it out before I piss my pants!"

Oh, gross! Don't do that!_  
_

"You're going _here_?!"

Why would you do that?! Well, I know _why_, but more like, how the heck can you even do that while facing that super-creepy wall, just inches away from it?! Wh-Wh-What if you make the 'residents' mad, and they kill us all because of you?! "Oh, you have got to be kidding..." I groaned.

I waited for the worst, but it didn't happen.

"T-Turn around!" Yosuke turned his head to us. "I can't go if everyone's watching!"

"Um..." Seta was about to speak against it before Yosuke finally gave up. "Aaaaargh... i can't do it! It's all your fault if my bladder bursts!"

"Like I care..." I said, shaking my head. "And besides, how would you have known we were watching you, anyway? You were facing the wall! You're just making excuses."

Youske just zipped his fly back up and crossed his arms out, a distressed look on his face. Anyway, I was a bit relieved. It was a good thing he didn't go and so spared us of terrible deaths at the hands of an angry ghost.

Unexpectedly, I heard Seta trying to stifle a laugh. I turned to him just to confirm it, and it was true.

"Wha- you're laughing, _here_?! What is wrong with you?!"

This only made him laugh more, though softly. "Sorry. It's just that... it was funny, and it helped diffuse the tension for me. It didn't seem to work for you, though..."

I wanted to spurt out something in response, but I couldn't. I just pursed my lips into a pout. I guess he _was_ right, since I was nowhere near as jittery as just now...

"Anyways..." I said. "What's with this room? Check out these posters... Their faces are all cut out...

"Somebody must really hate this person..." I concluded. But... wouldn't that mean that someone was _living_ here?! I wanted to get out of there as quick as possible, but the guys looked like they were set on exploring the room further, leaving me with no choice but to stay until they were satisfied. Seta went over to the wardrobe, which was absolutely covered with those weird paint splatters.

"H-Hey...!" I put out my hand to stop him from checking inside. "Don't do that! What if there's a body or something?!"

Seta just looked at me before proceeding to go for the first wardrobe door on the left.

"Hey! No...!"

I wanted to go over and stop him, but he already opened the wardrobe partly, making me close my hands tight over my eyes by instinct. "Eek!"

A few seconds passed of just me hearing Seta opening and closing the wardrobe compartments. My eyes were still closed until he was finally done.

"Nothing. Just some old-looking clothes."

Hearing him say that allowed me to finally uncover my eyes, and I sighed in utter relief.

Seta smiled at me. "I hadn't taken you for such a scaredy-cat."

"Sh-Shut up!" I yelled, stamping my feet.

How could you be in such a great mood in a place like this?! Seriously, Seta...!

"Hey guys, look at this," said Yosuke. He directed our attention to a chair near a corner of the room. He looked up to observe something hanging from one of the horizontal support beams. "Dude... this chair and rope... That kind of arrangement is never good..."

Oh no...

"It's tied in a noose... Is this a scarf?"

So we're _not_ in the room of a murderous ghost. We're in the room of a suicidal person, who _turned_ into a murderous ghost! Murderous for _us_! And we're standing in the room where it died! This can't, _can't_ be good...!

"Haha... C'mon... Let's go back to where we came from, and look somewhere _else_ for an exit..."

Yosuke nodded in agreement. Phew! Let's go already...!

We all got together to head out of the room, when Yosuke made a sudden stop, blocking the exit.

"Hey..." he said, observing one of the posters of the woman with her face slashed off. "I think I've seen that poster before..."

I was very quickly losing my patience, with _both_ of them. "Who _cares_?!" I yelled and stamped my foot again. "Let's go! I am _sick_ of this place-!"

"Ugh..." I bowed a little, suddenly feeling nauseous. The room started spinning a bit, and my head began to feel really dizzy. It wasn't bad enough that I couldn't stand up, though, so I managed to recover in about a second or two and straightened my back. "And... I'm not feeling so good..."

Yosuke gulped and blinked several times. "Now that you mention it, me too..."

"My body does feel heavy," said Seta, behind me. "Could it be due to this place's oppressive atmosphere...?"

Now's not the time for your arty-smarty, 1 AD-1 BC eloquence, Seta!

"Alright, let's go back. I'm seriously starting to feel sick..." said Yosuke, finally. He led the way, and we made our long journey back to where we first were. Luckily, we weren't too lost because Seta was memorising the route we took - which made me instantly regret thinking him as arty-smarty just now.

On the way back, just a little over halfway from us closing in on our original position, it was pretty quiet, and Yosuke was a somewhat far, but safe distance from us, leading the way based on Seta's guidance, so I decided to speak with Seta for a while.

"Hey, Seta-kun...?"

"Hm?" Seta spoke, not having said a word since he gave Yosuke instructions on how to get back.

"You already knew the way, so why didn't you just lead instead?"

"Hm... Well, I don't really enjoy being leader," he replied, quicker than expected.

"Really?" I responded. "You kinda struck me as a leader type."

"Nah," he said in lightning-speed dismissal. "I don't try to stand out much, so I don't think I'd make a good leader. Perhaps... a more behind-the-scenes person fits me more?"

"Don't try to stand out...?" I mimicked his exact words, in a much lighter mood now. We might not have found the exit yet, but at least we were out of that creepy hotel room, and that alone lifted my worries by miles. I smiled at him. "Your popped collar and silver hair say just the opposite.

Seta chuckled. "If I said it was natural, would you believe me?"

"What? No way!" I laughed, my voice purposely kept down in wariness of the strange surroundings. "And what about the collar? Does your neck just _naturally_ pop them for you?"

"It's to keep my neck warm," he joked. "I'd say Hanamura's weirder - he puts his _headphones_ around his neck to keep it warm."

"I heard that!" sounded Yosuke's raised voice in the distance, prompting laughter from all three of us.

"By the way, Seta-kun..." I continued, just after I was finished laughing. "I wanna ask you something."

"Go ahead," said Seta, in high spirits.

"About just now, while we were falling... Do you remember?"

"I think I'd remember something like that, yes," he smiled.

"No, no, that's not what I mean!" I waved my arm. "Just now, you..."

Trying to gather my words, I noticed his expression changed from one of nonseriousness to immediate attentiveness. A good listener too, huh? He'd be a perfect guy if he wasn't such a pain sometimes...

Finally knowing what to say, I started. "You grabbed me by the hand, and then right after that you reached out to Yosuke too..." I looked straight at him. "I'm pretty sure all of us thought we were going to die, that time. What is it that you wanted to do, just now?"

"Oh..." Seta looked to the side, thinking. "You see..."

I listened, waiting for his response.

"I know there was usually certain techniques you had to do to survive a fall, right?"

"Right," I said, remembering. "Relax your body, keep your head protected... that sort of thing?"

"That's right," he said. "But at that time, it didn't register to me. All I wanted to do was to make sure we lived."

"So you..."

"I... well... I wanted to put you two right above me, so if what we'd fall on was a hard surface, I'd..."

"...Break our fall," I said, completing, or more like interrupting his sentence without realising it.

"Oh, sorry. I mean-"

"No, no, you're right," he said, before he continued. "Keep in mind, though, that I had no idea if that sort of thing actually _worked_, but... well, I had to do something."

"Wow... I couldn't think straight at all that time. But you..."

He looked straight in front, and I could see he actually looked pretty embarrassed. After a while, I tapped him on the shoulder to make him look at me, and tried to communicate my gratitude into the best smile I could.

"Thank you, Seta-kun."

"Oh, uh..." he said, flushed. "What for...? Anyone would have made the same decision. I'm sure you would have, too. Right?"

"I'm not really sure about that, because I was so panicked that all I could think of was myself..." I said, fidgeting with my fingers as we walked.

"That's not true," said Seta, very plainly.

"H-Huh?"

"Don't you remember?" he said. "While we were still falling, you... You called my name just now, and asked me whether I was okay or not."

Something like realisation appeared on Seta's face for a moment before he shifted his focus back to me, but I saw it, clearly. But of what, I had no idea.

"I..."

I kept silent, not knowing how to counter that. My cheeks were heating up, very slightly.

We didn't say anything to each other after that, and just kept going to our destination in silence.

A... nice silence, I'd admit.

* * *

After a few hundred metres more of walking, we arrived back at the studio-looking area, and stopped right where we landed, on the mysterious stage.

"Whew..." said Satonaka, stretching. "We finally made it back here..."

However, she was quickly distracted by something beyond us. "Wait... What's that...?"

We looked ahead, and Hanamura jerked back in surprise, while I stepped back into a defensive stance. "Th-There's something over there!" said Hanamura.

A solitary figure stood not too far from us, obscured by the thick fog. It started walking toward us, making and odd noise with every step. When it finally became visible to us...

Well, I'd say it was definitely unexpected, and definitely out of the ordinary.

But, creepy...

"What is this thing?" queried Satonaka. "A monkey? A-a bear...?"

"What in the world...?" said Hanamura, the incredulous feeling we were all experiencing being summed up in the tone of his voice."

"Th-That's what I wanna know!Who _are_ you guys?" spoke the bear.

...

Spoke.

Satonaka took a step back in surprise, a gasp escaping her. "It talked!" She then made her hands into fists and assumed a kind of fisticuffs stance. "Uhh... What are you?! Y-You wanna fight?!"

The mysterious bear curled up in fear, shivering and facing away from Satonaka. "D-Don't yell at me like that..."

It didn't look threatening, and it was definitely more welcome than whatever was the cause of that handiwork in that room... assuming the bear isn't, of course. While it was very tempting to ask what it actually was, the more important matter was getting out of here safely. We might not see the mysterious bear anymore once we get out, anyway, so it was important to gauge his helpfulness right now when we had the chance.

"What is this place?" I said, trying to sound polite to the talking bear.

...Such a weird thought.

"This place is... what it is. It doesn't have a name." The mysterious bear looked up at me, having been reassured somewhat. "It's where I live."

"You... live here?" Hanamura said, just as bewildered as the rest of us.

"If I was you guys, I'd hurry back to the other side," the bear continued. "Someone's been throwing people in here. It's a biiig headache."

Hanamura was quick to voice my thoughts. "Huh? Throwing people in? What're you talking about?"

"I dunno who's doing it! I just want them to think before they do something like that!" the bear started raising its voice, cranky. Though it didn't _look_ dangerous, I was still a little worried, not really knowing what it was capable of.

Satonaka didn't exercise that same caution. "Hey, what's your problem?! What gives _you_ the right to yell at us like that?!" She began interrogating the bear for answers. "What _are_ you?! Where _are_ we?! What the heck's going on here?!"

The bear couldn't take it anymore, and unexpectedly, instead of running _away_, it ran right past Yosuke and took cover behind _me_, a sad look apparent in its big eyes.

"I already told you..." said the bear, carefully watching Satonaka's current position from behind me. "A-Anyways, you should hurry back."

"What it comes down to is, you want us to get outta here, right?" questioned Hanamura, causing the bear to divert its attention to him, though actually still keeping much closer watch on Satonaka.

"Well, so do we!" said Hanamura, pointing to himself and the rest of us. "We just don't know how, dammit!"

"Urrrgh!" The bear threw another fit. "That's why I'm saying I'll let you out!"

Wait, you'll what?

"Like I keep saying," said Hanamura. "We don't know where the _frickin'_ exit- Wait... What?"

Indeed, that's what I thought too.

The mysterious bear tapped its left foot on the stage twice, and out of nowhere appeared three giant, though old-looking TV sets - the kind with knob dials - out of a large puff of smoke right before us, not even three feet from where each of us stood.

"What the hell?!" said Hanamura, summarising the entire situation we've been through.

"Wh-Where did these TVs come from?!" said Satonaka, summarising the _current_ situation.

The three of us gathered and stood in front of the column of the three TVs, stacked on top of each other. Upon observation, their screens had a pink hue, but displayed nothing. They were identical, save for the top which had an antenna on it, the bottom having legs, and the middle one sandwiched between the other two lacking both.

"Okay, now go, go, get outta here! I'm a busy bear!"

We heard the mysterious bear from behind us. All of a sudden, he began pushing all three of us towards the column of TVs.

"What's going on now?!" cried Satonaka. "Whoa! Hey, what're you doing?!"

I felt Satonaka's shoulder violently shoved against my back, making me land headfirst into the middle TV's screen. As is apparently expected now, it went right in. I felt the same sensation as before, but this one felt more... gentle? It's hard to explain. The pull was just as strong as always, but not as unpleasant...

"S-Stop pushing!" I heard Hanamura before my entire body was pulled in.

In a matter of seconds, much faster than when we first fell, we tumbled out, and all hit the ground about the same time. I heard a familiar tune in the background, that of Junes' supermarket music.

I turned to check on the others. Satonaka blinked a few times, first for regaining composure and the second apparently in disbelief. "Huh? Is this...?"

"Did we... make it back?" said Hanamura.

As we stood to right ourselves back up, the intercom started playing.

_Attention, shoppers. Our daily limited-time sale will now begin at the side dish area on the first floor. Why not try the delicious, fresh produce Junes picked for you this morning as your side dish for dinner tonight? All ages are invited to take advantage of this incredible bargain!_

"Crap, it's already that late?!" Hanamura said, turning to us.

"Looks like we were in there for quite awhile..." said Satonaka in affirmation.

"That's right..." said Hanamura in realisation.

"You still haven't gone to the bathroom?" was what I wanted to say, but couldn't in time.

"Now I remember where I saw that poster before..." said Hanamura. He pointed at something to the right of us. "Look over there! That's the poster we saw!"

"Huh?"said Satonaka, turning to where Hanamura was pointing us to. "What's up now?"

We looked over, and true enough, to the right of one of the flatscreen TVs, were the same posters we saw all over the hotel room from earlier - with the face portions intact, of course.

"Hey, you're right, they're the same," said Satonaka. "I couldn't tell before without the face, but that's Misuzu Hiiragi..." She turned to us to explain what she knew. "She's been all over the news lately. Something about... her husband having an affair with that announcer lady who died the other day."

"Ah, that's right," I said. "It's the same portrait used in the news report I first saw her on."

"Hey, so does that mean..." Hanamura said, prompting our attention. "That weird room we saw... Could it be related to the Yamano lady's death?"

"It's a bit of a stretch," I said. "But considering everything's that happened just now... it's not really such a stretch anymore."

Hanamura gave a nod, still pondering. "Now that I think about it... there was that creepy noose hanging from the ceiling..."

Soon, however, he gave up, shaking his head. "Yaaargh, stop! No more! We gotta stop thinking about this."

"But what about what we just experienced?" I said, unsatisfied by him giving up. There were still a _lot_ of things that begged to be answered.

"Well, I dunno about you, but _I'm_ gonna wipe what happened today from my brain. I don't think my poor heart can take anymore."

You forgot about your bladder.

"I'm feeling a chill too..." said Satonaka, a little bowed over from weariness. She looked to both Hanamura and me, sounding pretty out of it after meeting that strange bear. "Let's go home... I wanna lie down and rest."

"Oh, agreed." Hanamura said. Realisation flashed on his face. "Oh, crap! I can go to the bathroom now! See you two at school tomorrow!"

And with that, he ran off to find the nearest restroom.

* * *

Man, that Yosuke...

"Sheesh, what a day..." I said. "Will you be going home too?"

Seta nodded before checking his watch. "You look a little pale. It's pretty late already - do you need to walk home together?"

"Oh, I don't need to, thanks." I said, waving it off.

"Are you sure?" Seta pressed further. "To be honest, I'm not feeling great either. We can look out for each other just in case something happens."

Huh, he doesn't mind relying on me? You could be passed out and I have to carry you, you know!

"I can't argue with that," I conceded. Seta looked to where Yosuke left. "Oh, don't worry about Yosuke. He's told me he's slept here before on night shifts, so I'm sure he'll spend the night if he's too sick to go home."

"If you say so... Though I'm sure he'd prefer sleeping on his own bed..."

"Oh, what're you so worried for? The worst is over! If he can take a kick from me, he can take a little lightheadedness!"

"Good point," Seta said, laughing. "Okay, then. You know him better than I do. Let's go."

I agreed, and we left Junes together. I did say I didn't _need_ to. I didn't say I didn't...

Well... _want_ to._  
_

We were both pretty tuckered out, so none of us said much that was important on the way back. Still, the company was much better than going alone, since I can forget about the throbbing in my head and the cold sweat this way.

Just when I said it, though, a wave of nausea hit me. Combined with all that's happened today, this one was much stronger than that time in that room, and it brought me looking for the nearest lamppost to lean against.

But just then, I felt a hand on my shoulder: Seta's.

"Satonaka, you okay?" I heard him say. His voice was really calm, without any large hint of worry. It's probably not lack of concern - otherwise he wouldn't have come so close - so is it because he knows I can handle more than this? My curiosity over this little thing began to overtake me.

"Thanks," I said. "You didn't sound too worried though."

"Do you think so?" he said. "Maybe I just didn't want to be taken too off-guard."

"Yeah, I guess that's about right..." To be honest, I was still pretty light-headed, so I kept my head down and my eyes closed. But when I opened them a little, I saw Seta squat down beside me, massaging his forehead. I was pretty disorientated too, so I got on my knees beside him, bracing myself against the lamppost.

"Hey, are you okay?" I mumbled. "Seta-kun?"

"Yeah, just a little tired." He got back up soon after, but I found it way more difficult. "But it looks like you got the worst of it."

"N-No...!" I tried standing up, but I was still leaning against the pole. "You and Yosuke were in there just as long...! L-Let's go...!"

As if by perfect timing, my head became clearer, so I was able to make good on my word and take off, making Seta follow hot on my heels. Eventually, he got to a good pace beside me, and we walked side-by-side again.

"You worry me, Satonaka," said Seta. "There's no need to prove yourself with this much gusto."

"Yes there is!" I said with insistence. At my words, Seta fell silent for a while.

"If you say so, then. Just be careful," he finally said.

I just realised. Whenever Seta shows his concern for me or Yosuke, it always puts me off. I felt I needed to ask him about it, and while it may not be the _best_ time, I wouldn't say it was a completely _bad_ one... I went ahead with it.

"Hey, Seta-kun... Why do you care for me and Yosuke so much?" I began. "While we were falling, trying to keep us calm... You met us like literally only two days ago, so why...? Are you just that sort of person...?"

Seta kept quiet. "Well... Um..." was all he managed.

"I get it. 'What's with all the questions', right?" I said after not getting an answer for some time, and not wanting to ignore the matter. "It's just that I'm curious." I shook my head and corrected myself.

"No - more than curious. I'm worried. We're practically still strangers to you, in this new place. I just wonder... Why would you risk your life for us? I'm just a little worried that you'd put yourself in too much danger, and..."

More silence went on before he finally gave me something.

"I don't know."

While unsatisfied, for now I was content to leave it at that... Before he shook his head, like I did.

"Well, no, not quite. What about you?" he said. "I said before that anyone would've done what I did. Or at least, should have. You showed concern, too."

"N-Not as much as you!" I corrected, before looking away. "I... I did nothing to help. I couldn't figure anything out, remember...? I was just a load that you and Yosuke had to carry..."

Seta didn't say anything. I laughed a little.

"So, I'm right, then..."

"You shouldn't think like that, Satonaka."

"But am I _right_?"

"That's-"

We arrived at where we'd part ways. The road forked into two paths at one of the houses there. I looked over to Seta, who was staring at that house. The moon was pretty bright today, illuminating Seta's face against the serene blue surroundings.

"Saying 'Anyone would do it' is just a really bad excuse, isn't it?" he said, turning his head to me. "To answer your question: Part of me doesn't want to care, but... I guess... there's _another_ part of me... that doesn't give a _damn_ that I don't want to care. Do... Do you get what I'm..."

I nodded.

"Yeah. You mean your conscience?"

"More than that," he said. "Even things like hanging out and talking, which I didn't want to bother with, I do them anyway."

"Why not?"

"..."

Things seemed like they won't be going very far until we knew each other better - plus I was really exhausted, so I tried to end it there on the best terms I could. I didn't know any other way to do it than what I normally do: smile. I gave Seta the best I could've managed.

And he took note of it.

"I'm sorry, Seta-kun," I said, stepping closer to him. "Sorry for bringing this all up. Like I said, we only knew each other for like three days... Thinking I should know everything about you was just stupid of me."

"Satonaka..."

I interrupted. "You'll only be moving in till the end of the year, right?" The question was met with a simple nod, which prompted me to smile again. "Then let's take our time. One year's not exactly short."

Seta nodded again. Noticing that the atmosphere is better now, I grinned instead.

"But it's not long, either! If I don't find out now, I'll find out eventually!"

Seta finally smiled and shook his head. "You're a really nosy one, Satonaka."

"A-A-Ah," I wagged my finger at him. "I'm sick of 'Satonaka' this and 'Satonaka' that. It's getting old." I crossed my arms and held my nose up. "You can call me 'Chie-san' if you wish."

"I think I'll stick with 'Satonaka'," he laughed.

"Nope! You can't." I firmed my stance.

"Well, 'Chie-san' is too formal at this point that I might as well just stick with 'Satonaka', and I've never used '-chan' for anybody..."

He kept his voice soft.

"Is... 'Chie'... fine?"

My heart jumped a little for no reason. It didn't make sense. Yosuke calls me by my first name all the time - so do several other guys in class, along with every girl I know. But the way _he_ said it... It's different. I...

I didn't know _what_ kind of different.

"Ah..." I started laughing sheepishly. "It's a little awkward. Maybe just Satonaka will do... F-For now! So I didn't change my mind, if that's what you're thinking!"

"My, my..." Seta chuckled. "Make up your mind, _Satonaka_."

Hearing 'Satonaka' put me at ease again. Whatever that feeling was, I knew we still weren't close enough for that.

It's only been three days, after all.

"Well, Satonaka, I'll see you tomorrow." Seta waved as he headed off in the direction of his own house. "Careful on your way back."

"Yeah, I will!" I said, waving vigorously to show him I wasn't in as terrible shape as just now. "Bye, Seta-kun!"

* * *

After saying our farewells, I finally made it home. In a stroke of luck, I arrived home just half an hour before Dad did, but unfortunately, Mom was already home.

"Chie! Where were you?!" Mom sternly yelled. "Dinner's already cold! But more importantly, you know that there's been a murder just two days ago! What if something happened to you?!"

"I'm sorry, Mom..." I was just way too tired to come up with a good excuse. "I was out with Yosuke and the new transfer student, and we hung out at Junes... We were indoors. so I didn't know it was already late..."

"That doesn't mean you could leave your phone turned off! I tried calling you, but you didn't answer!"

"Oh no, you did?!" I reached for my cellphone, and true enough, there were three missed calls from Mom. There was even one from Yukiko. I ran to her, feeling genuinely bad I made her worry... just like I made Seta and Yosuke worry about me. "I'm sorry! I didn't want to worry you, honest! It's just... I didn't..."

I couldn't finish my sentence due to the nausea again. I held my head and tried to steady myself, when Mom came and held me steady. "Chie, what's wrong?! Do you have a fever?"

"Yeah..." I murmured. "I mean, I dunno, I just feel a little tired, that's all..."

"See?" she reprimanded. "This is what happens when you go out the whole day!" She kept tutting me, but eventually she led me to the restroom with care, her voice soft. "Go take a nice, long bath, then go _straight_ to bed. Are you listening, Chie?"

"Yeah, thanks Mom..." I gave her a playful smile, and she just lightly knocked me on the head in jest.

After having my bath, I was happy to listen to Mom for once and forego tearing the house apart trying to emulate my kung-fu movies and just collapse onto the bed. I figured I could just meet Yukiko tomorrow and apologise to her. I went to sleep in record time, but the last thing I thought about as I was drifting off was what I thought earlier, about Seta...

It's only been three days, after all...

But...

If so much was said and shared between us in that time, more than with Yosuke, even... more than with any other guy...

What's gonna happen for all the rest of the year?

I entered sleep, feeling more than a little bit scared... More than a little bit unsure... More than a little bit helpless and more than a little bit angry with that helplessness...

But as has always been the case with me and Seta-kun: More than a little bit... curious.

So, so curious... and I have no idea why.

Or... maybe I do have an idea why. It's because...

Part of me doesn't want to know, but... there's _another_ part of me... that doesn't give a _damn_ that I don't want to know.

I just want to know.

It's only been three days... after all.


	9. Chapter 8: Raindrops in Our Eyes

**A/N:** I didn't put an Author's Note at the end of last chapter just so that I wouldn't soil that handcrafted ending line. Do you have any idea how long it took to get the buildup to that just right?

Nevermind, please enjoy the story. I made an intro at the start of the fic too, because my fingers were too itchy for their own good.

* * *

I stood at the porch of my house, feeling helpless again. I hate it. Why do I keep feeling helpless so often nowadays?

Anyway, I was standing there because it was raining again. Dad had already left for work, taking the only other umbrella with him. Mom came out, wondering what I was doing there.

"Chie? What are you doing out here?"

"Heheh, hi Mom..." I rubbed my sleeve to get rid of that chilly morning air. "The umbrella's broken, remember?"

"Well serves you right!" said Mom in a huff. "Because of your little training accident, now _I_ can't use it to go to the morning market either!"

"Sorry..." I said, making it as clear as possible I didn't want that to happen as much as she did, if not more. "Well, what now...?"

Mom shrugged. "I guess you'll have to make a run for it. You did it yesterday, didn't you?"

"Mom...!" I whined. "That's cruel! A-And what about your morning market thing?"

"Me getting food for you and your favourite organ, the stomach, is not a '_thing_', okay?" she corrected, tapping her foot on the floorboards. "And I always have my dramas to watch. _You_ have mandatory education - lucky you." She said that last one with _waayy_ too much mirth.

"Ohh, _fine_!" I said, putting on my shoes. Unsatisfied, I took a jab at Mom while I stepped out into the light morning day shower. I twiddled my nose at her as over-dramatically as I could. "If I get sick, that just means I can skip more classes, so heh!"

I was expecting an angered "Why you...!" but all Mom did was shoo me off with her hand. "Oh, go on already," she said before turning on her heels with the grace of a ballerina and closing the door on me.

Mom is _way_ too used to me now, it's no fun...

Just then, in a case of insanely bad timing, my cellphone rang.

"Oh crap!" I wanted to plead for Mom to let me in, but I was already late for classes! I decided to answer it while I ran to school, covering it with my hand to protect it from the rain.

"Hello? Yes?"

"Hello, Chie?"

"Yukiko?" I said, droplets of rain pelting my face in the most annoying ways possible, each thundering step getting my shoes and socks more and more wet. Still, there was no reason to look to Yukiko for pity, so I just pretended I was fine and dandy. "Wha... What's up?"

"Chie, you sound out of breath! Is everything fine...?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Oh, crap! The raindrops, they're falling into my mouth! "I'm just... jogging to school, heheh!"

"I see... Alright," answered Yukiko. "I'm at the inn right now. I just called to tell you: The inn, they urgently need me this morning to prepare one of the main rooms. An important guest is coming over at noon, you see..."

"Uh huh?"

"So I'm just calling to inform you that I won't be at class. I don't think I'll arrive at school until after lunch..."

"Oh, okay then!" I yelled over the rain. It started getting heavier for no reason other than for my own misery. "No problem! See you then!"

"Chie..." Yukiko's voice went soft.

I couldn't take the battering from the rain any longer, so I took cover under a big tree, thick with leaves. "What's wrong, Yukiko?" Now that I wasn't running, it was much easier to listen.

"I'm..." Yukiko hesitated. "I'm sorry. I already promised you during the school break that we would spend more time together this year, but now..."

"Yukiko..." To be honest, after everything that's happened plus the fact that work kept piling up for her, I knew she probably had no say in it. "I-It's not your fault, okay?" I said, trying to cheer her up. "Things like this happen! It's not like we're not friends anymore or anything!"

"No..." said Yukiko, her voice insistent. "What good is making a promise you can't keep...? I'm sure if I manage my time better, or just do _something_, then I could..."

"Yukiko." I cut her off, keeping my voice very firm. She kept silent, allowing me to continue. "It's okay. I'm your best friend, remember? _You're_ my best friend! Don't worry about it... I understand."

"Chie..." said Yukiko, her voice delicate. "Thank you... I see. I'll see you later, then."

"No problem." I smiled to myself. "Alright, I have to run now!"

Yukiko chuckled a bit. "Okay then... Bye, Chie." At the last minute before she hung up, she added this sweet little thing in. "I'm really lucky to have you as my friend."

She hung up. I just held up the phone and just looked at a while. "Aawww.." A laugh escaped my lips. "Silly... I'm not that great..."

After keeping my phone back, I stretched a little and surveyed my surroundings. "Well...!" I groaned, flexing my arms to warm up. "Here goes nothing!"

I took off as fast as I could, making a mad dash through the rain. However, every step I made, I consciously made sure they landed squarely on the pavement. I did _not_ want to slip and fall. That'd just make this day _so_ much worse than it already has any right to be.

I thought about what Yukiko said, while I ran at full speed - nothing but the sound of rain rushing and falling across the road being heard.

She said she's lucky, huh...

Nah. _I'm_ the lucky one. I've _always_ been. E...Even if Yukiko _is_ the prettiest girl in school. Even if she doesn't have to worry about her grades ever. I'm popular in all the weird ways, but people always looked up to her with so much admiration and respect...

Even if boys never notice me, even if I'm too rough for anyone to like, or to care for...

At least Yukiko will always be there.

I'm the lucky one here.

"Oh, crap."

I came to a halt. I tried looking for the driest spot on my sleeve and wiped my eye with it.

"Got rain in my eye..."

Or so I told myself.

Why did I have rain in my eye? There was no reason to. It's... It's not like I was super-depressed or anything, so why did it just randomly appear? It was only one raindrop, granted, but... one's way more than none.

I looked down, and watched the raindrops make dark spots on my green jacket, with its vibrant yellow stripes and cute buttons. So bright and colourful, so immature...

I realised that... I was me. Only a selfish person would ever get raindrops in their eye just because of themselves and their petty problems, at the slightest provocation...

I was so far from the woman Yukiko was on the fast road to being... Is that why we're spending less and less time together? Am I just a toy that has to be grown out of?

I'm the lucky one here... But what'll happen once Yukiko grows out of me...? There's no way I can catch up to her looks, her grades, her everything... Why would anyone care about someone like me when they could always just choose Yukiko...?

...

I kept running.

I arrived at a familiar road. It's at the house where the paths to Seta's house and mine from school part ways. Knowing there wasn't any shade there, I opted to preserve my momentum and keep running, my jacket soaking most of the rainfall. An amusing thought entered my head.

Maybe if I run fast enough, I could catch up to Seta-kun and freeload off his umbrella again...

"Satonaka!"

Huh? That voice, wasn't that...

The voice came from behind me, so I came to a skidding halt, nearly slipping, and turned around. To my complete amazement, at the house where Seta and I were talking at just last night was...

"Seta-kun?!" I hollered. "Wha-What're you doing here?!"

"Hold on," he said, running over to where I was. He was holding the same transparent plastic umbrella as yesterday over his head. Within a few seconds though, it was over me as well. I was... speechless.

"D... Don't tell me..." I somehow managed.

"Now, how to explain this..." Seta said, taking note of my surprise. "You see, I didn't know where your house was. Well, I wasn't sure... Rather... I forgot. A little."

"Um." I somehow managed again.

"Right, right," he said, recomposing himself, holding the umbrella over the two of us all the while. "When I left the house and saw it was raining, I was immediately reminded of you saying you broke your umbrella at home. I was early, so I thought I'd just wait here for five minutes, and if you didn't show up, I'd continue on to class..."

"B-But," I stammered. I looked down and away, wiping every drop of water from my forehead and cheeks just so that I had something to keep my hands busy with... just so that I had _something_ to do... but look at him...

This wasn't supposed to happen... didn't you hear me just now, brain...? Nobody's supposed to care - especially not some... some stinkin' boy...

"Um, I know," Seta said. "What a stroke of luck... isn't it? I wasn't sure what I wanted to accomplish, doing that... and I didn't know what I was really doing, either..."

...

"HA!"

Go away.

"Um, Satonaka?"

I said go away.

"HA! AHAHAHAHAA!"

I'm being creepy! Why aren't you running away?!

"Um... A... ha, heheh, yeah, I... I know..." said Seta, his nervous laughter accompanying mine. "It's strange, isn't it...?"

I don't know what came over me next. Anger... Total disbelief... Something. Without thinking, I just grabbed both sides of his open jacket, and pulled him.

"WHAT ARE YOU, STUPID?!"

What do you think you're doing, trying to care?!

"What if my umbrella was fixed today? What if I had a spare? What if my dad drove me? What if this happened, and that happened?! Why would you do something _so DUMB_?!"

Don't you have someone else to worry about?! Why're you even here?!

Seta stared at me, wide-eyed, mouth slightly parted at a loss for words. I gave him a cold stare - my brows were literally crashing down on my eyes, and in the cool, humid street, where only my shouting was heard, only to be drowned out by the unceasing rain, where there seemed to be nobody, nobody but just the two of us, standing in the cold...

_Why..._

_Why are you proving me wrong?_

Something was burning in me like a furnace. An inferno. I knew there was anger. I didn't know _why_, but I knew it was there. I felt anger more than enough times before to know.

But something else... something else was there. It was simultaneously, _systematically_ extinguishing my anger, yet whenever it went on to the forefront of my consciousness, it paradoxically made my anger all the stronger. Yet it was not a coolness - but a fire - burning just as hot as my anger, kindling and extinguishing it, burning just as hot and ten times more tempestuous. Ten times more terrifying.

"Well?" I said, still gripping his jacket, my fingers digging so deep into my palm it's like the cloth between them wasn't even there. "Answer me!"

"I..." Seta looked away and pursed his lips in deliberation. He looked back to me after a few seconds. "I just happened to remember, that's all. It just crossed my mind, without me asking it to. How could I ignore it after that..."

"You can!" I shook him back and forth twice. "Brush it off! Ignore it! 'Oh, I'm sure she'll be fine!' That sort of thing!"

He didn't answer, allowing a brief silence to pass between us. Because of that, my common sense began to make its way back in the lull of our exchange.

My geyser of emotions was very slowly beginning to subside, and my grip on his clothes loosened. But he was still holding that... that damn umbrella over my head...

"I..." Seta's brow furrowed. "I don't know. I..." He looked out the the rain-filled street. "I never really gave thought about the kind of person I was. Maybe... this is me..."

I snorted, out of instinct. "How could you not know this sort of thing?" I blinked a few times and tried to steady my breathing. I squatted down on the street, finally calm. I let out a great, big sigh and just let my head fall. As I watched the road, I spoke to him, but I wasn't expecting him to hear it.

"Geez, Seta. You really confuse me..."

Some silence passed, save for the pattering of raindrops on the pavement, until...

"Ha!"

It was Seta.

"Huh?" I turned to look at him.

"Hahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAA! Ohh..." Seta put his hand over his face. Right after that he squatted down too, adjacent to me, his laughter still there but subsiding.

"Wha-What...?" I asked.

Ignoring me, Seta span the umbrella handle between his fingers in little circles, looking up at the thin metal spokes supporting the umbrella's covering blur into each other. All I did was watch, and it somehow, weirdly, helped me calm down some more. It was only after he was done and satisfied that he turned his attention back to me.

And he kept it there, for quite a while.

I kept silent, for some reason not wanting to make any sudden moves. My eyes looked in every little direction but at him. I began to feel awkward, but not really embarrassed - the way he looked at me seemed so blank it didn't elicit that from me. His gaze kept shifting to different points of my face, and a lot of times, even to my hair. After a while of just that, he finally spoke.

He held his umbrella with both his hands.

"People look different when they're drenched," he finally said.

"H-Huh?!" That was all that was about?!

"I was watching the raindrops fall..." He froze mid-sentence. "Fall off your hair..." He turned his head away and began to look embarrassed, but only after he had acknowledged what he was doing. "Right... sorry."

"Th... That's not it," I said, feeling pretty flushed now that _I_ realised what he was doing. "What were you laughing about?"

"Oh, right." He turned his head back to me and made direct eye contact, his expression serious. He pointed to himself with his free hand, and with every word that proceeded next, he gave emphasis to each and mouthed them in the biggest lip movements he could do.

He took an audible breath.

"Satonaka!"

"Wh-What...?!"

"You're. Saying. _I. _Confuse. YOU?"

...

...

Both of us burst into laughter, but I, _I_ was especially hysterical. We wiped the raindrops from our eyes - raindrops of laughter - and just kept squatting there in the rain and enjoying each other's company like a pair of idiots.

If he didn't care, he would've run away already. But he didn't.

I... wanted to believe what I saw him doing to me. That he would keep it up.

That he would keep proving me wrong.

* * *

Satonaka realised we were abysmally late, and opted to run all the way instead of walking to school together like last time, insisting that it was much faster. I decided not to argue. I didn't want to run, so I decided that I would simply had to take whatever punishment Ms. Sofue had for me.

And so I did.

Morning classes were nowhere near as interesting as what happened earlier today - but it came pretty close.

"You're late, Mr. Seta."

I stood at the class entrance, my pant legs dripping water down to my shoes, which dripped down onto the floor. I took notice of Satonaka, who also took notice of me. It seems she managed to make it to class in time - to the detriment of her clothes. I could see her jacket was dripping wet even when it was obscured by her body; it was slung on the back of her chair. Because of that, I saw her for the first time wearing the regular female students' black sailor uniform.

Maybe I'm just being biased, but I had always thought that Satonaka stood out among the girls because of her bright green jacket, but now, even without it, when she's dressed the same as every other girl...

She-

"Mr. Seta?"

"O-Oh!" I lowered my head in apology. "I'm sorry, Ms. Sofue. It was raining, and..."

I saw Ms. Sofue's stern, unamused expression.

"...Nevermind. I'll take the punishment."

My honesty prompted some laughter from the students, even Hanamura. Satonaka just shook her head, smiling. She's probably trying to telepathically communicate to me that I should've ran like she did.

No thanks. I was wet enough trying _not_ to get wet.

Ms. Sofue tapped her dowser against the palm of her other hand. "Miss Satonaka?"

"Huh?" Satonaka stood up, surprised. "Yes, Sofue-sensei?"

"Kindly clear the top of your desk of any items," she said. While Satonaka did so, I just kind of stood there at the front of the class, watching. "Since this the very first punishment being held at my lesson, I have something very special in mind for Mr. Seta, ohoho..."

Um...

"Ms. Sofue?" called one of the male students, his hand raised. "If you just want him to stand on his desk, why do you need Satonaka-san's, too...?"

"Oh no, no," said Ms. Sofue. "When on earth did I say Mr. Seta was going to _stand_ on his desk?"

...Oh dear.

* * *

"Wh-! Why do I get the leg?! Dude, your pants are all soaked!"

"You must get used to it, Mr. Hanamura! The conditions during the Middle Ages would not have pampered you nearly as much! Be glad you are the torturer and not the _tortured_!"

Ms. Sofue took a cut out of the lesson time to administer my punishment, which consisted of me lying down on two of the school desks - my upper body on my own desk and my legs on Satonaka's. Ms. Sofue started with a "Today we'll be learning a little bit ahead of the curriculum - with one of the more gruesome yet fascinating topics: Medieval Torture Devices!" and now, here we are.

"I will need three more volunteers - male." Ms. Sofue surveyed the class for volunteers. "Let's see... you, you and you." She pointed to three other random male students in the class - the guy who raised his hand just now being one of them.

Meanwhile, Satonaka was relieved of her desk for the moment - meaning she had to move back a feet or two and watch the proceedings, which was to my right, from where I was lying.

Basically, she had front-row seats to the public torture of the literally late Souji Seta.

"This method of torture was known as the rack," said Ms. Sofue. "A dreadful plethora of sight and sound, the victim is suspended on a specialised wooden harness and his limbs are stretched apart via pulleys and levers. We will have to settle with this improvised replica for now..."

While the other three arrived to take their posts at each of my limbs, Satonaka settled into her seat a little _too_ comfortably. Decked in the regular black uniform, she lowered her back and rested her elbows on her knees, and supported her chin on both her hands.

"Enjoying yourself?" I asked, turning my head to the right to see her.

"Oh..." She smiled a mischievous look. "I will."

"Excellent," said Ms. Sofue, seeing that all the relevant participants were in place. The other classmates were gathered all around us, watching attentively. Some were cheering "Go, transfer student!" along with "Stretch those limbs!"

"Now," Ms. Sofue said, extending her dowser outwards. "Pull his limbs slowly, and let him know the meaning of 're-education'."

And so it began.

While I was braced down on my desk, I was faced with Hanamura pulling on my right leg, and three others on the other limbs. After like five to ten seconds they pulled them straight already, so they just improvised and did random things - from trying to lift me into the air to circling around the 'rack' to make me spin. Mostly I just lay still and 'endured' the ordeal, but there were times where the class' collective laughter proved too infectious and so for the most part, I joined in with them too. Even Ms. Sofue, while she wasn't laughing, looked like she was massively enjoying herself the one time I managed to look while I was spinning. She had her arms crossed way too professionally for the situation at hand,_ by _her hand, with a pleased look adorning her face.

Satonaka way of course having a field day, laughing at me. The rest of the class were too, every girl and every boy... but why I noted her in particular...

...Well.

The sensible excuse was that she was simply the nearest audience member... but I was no idiot. Well, not the intellectual kind of idiot, anyway. I knew there was a different reason. I knew there was more to it.

For the most part, I just looked up at the ceiling while the other boys were tugging at my limbs, laughing most of the time too. I even let out a "That tickles" just to mess with Hanamura. But whenever I could hear Satonaka's frantic laughter rising over the noise just slightly, I was always tempted to look.

And I always relented.

During those times that I stole a peek at her laughter, I was lucky enough that she was always laughing so hard that she had her eyes shut. So whenever I turned to look at her, laughing along, I always felt this strange, almost taboo excitement of just staring for just a little while longer, for as long as I could afford to.

Only once did our eyes meet, when I ended up overcalculating. When we did, it was like time did us the courtesy of slowing down.

She didn't look away, she didn't stop laughing. At my plight, and alongside my own laughter, in the midst of this strange, unexpected situation...

She smiled. A smile like all her others, and yet... more. Her eyes were upturned in glee, yet the hazel colouring her irises were clear to see. Her mouth was closed, emphasising the curvature of her lips - details I somehow managed to pick up in that moment of slowed time.

Now, and even _during_ that time, it's crossed my mind more than once. That this was what any layman would call the beginning of that thing all teenagers go through and write songs and poems and embarrassing letters in celebration of. But... no.

It wasn't love. No way.

I felt love more than enough times before to know.

Love had always hurt, had always disappointed, had never done anything for me that I liked. This... was better.

Which is why, after everything had settled down, after we had rearranged our tables, and we continued listening to the History lesson...

I wondered, that if this was better...

Wouldn't it only hurt all the more when I surely, inevitably leave?

...

Needless to say, Ms. Sofue's popularity as a educator rose significantly since that scene. It didn't hurt mine, either, despite it being intended as a _punishment_. While I knew my initial arrival at Yasogami caught some ears, the entire second year seems to at least heard of me in some way after that.

I've not given it its proper thought before, but it seemed necessary now. I had to, before it was too late.

I wasn't going according to my plan.

I was enjoying everything too much. I was getting too attached. I was being too friendly. I was laughing at everything. I was setting myself up for what may be my biggest emotional trap yet, and was walking right into it.

I couldn't concentrate on the lesson anymore. I began to feel terrible dread, just barely half an hour after the laughing riot just now. I haven't even begun to consider all of that Igor stuff, and the TV world, and this damn 'contract' thing...

You idiot... Haven't you learnt your lesson already?

"Seta-kun?"

It was Satonaka.

"Huh?" I replied, snapped out of my thoughts.

"You look pretty down all of a sudden," she said, her concern slowly transforming into a comforting smile. "What happened? Was the torture too much for you?"

Sh... Shut up, Satonaka.

Why do you care so much...?

"It's... It's nothing," I said. "It's just... surreal, that's all."

"Oh," she agreed without a single sign of hesitation, letting out a soft laugh. "I guess that makes sense," Satonaka said.

You liar.

"No, I..." I cut in, stopping her. "It's..."

I saw her in the corner of my vision. She began to look more worried. "Well? What is it...?"

"I..." My lips felt parched. "I can't say yet."

She stared at me for a while. "Yeah... I get it." She leaned back in her seat and smiled at me. "We all have our secrets, so... I suppose it's fair."

She added further. "I mean, it's not like we're in a position to be that trusting of each other..."

"No," I quickly said. "Because we weren't in a position to do a_ lot_ of the things we did, either."

"That's... also true..."

Satonaka settled back in her seat, unable to say anything else. The next class came up, taught by a teacher of a much lower caliber than Ms. Sofue's shown herself to be... Morooka. After ten minutes of his lectures showed that he wasn't going to teach anything very meaningful this time - plus every student in class was texting each other under their desks anyway - Satonaka took this as a chance to rekindle our dropped conversation just now.

"You're a weird one, Seta-kun," she suddenly said. She kept her head down and voice low so Morooka wouldn't spot her, but I heard her clearly enough, and though her head was down, she was smiling, inviting me to answer.

"Please elaborate," I said, my wording short and intentionally curt. I was being wary, but I still tried to be lighthearted about it.

"Well, I guess I'm weird too, from your perspective..." she said. "I guess, what I really mean to say is... our, well, relationship... is weird."

She waved her left arm in small motions. "Ah, but, what I mean is...! Not a _relationship_ relationship! Just a... you know, I guess it's friendship, but..."

"I think I get it." I nodded, ending her misery. "So, what are you getting at...?"

"Well, I dunno, I just thought I'd make conversation, pick up where we left off..." she laughed. "I really wasn't expecting anything deep out of it, I..."

"You...?" I looked over to her. She kept her eyes straight ahead, and a wistful smile appeared on her face, bathed by the amber sunlight peering through the windows - allowed to pass by a gap in the misty rainfall.

"I dunno..." she said slowly. I waited, and her lips parted and danced a bashful dance around each word.

"I guess... I just like, talking to you..."

...

I kept silent and looked down at my desk. I didn't know whether Satonaka was looking at me or not. I didn't know what to make of any of this. What I _did_ know was that my suspicions were beginning to be confirmed.

This wasn't love.

This was looking to be something much worse. Something I couldn't even begin to _claim_ to understand.

And once again... I found myself too weak to fight back.

Once again, too weak to say no.

Because I knew the only strength I ever had was the strength to close my eyes...

...And say goodbye when I had to.

The strength of a coward.

* * *

**A/N:** I just wanted to add another cute umbrella scene for Chie and Souji, then head straight to the school assembly announcing Saki's death. Y'know, story stuff.

And then this happened.


	10. Final?

Hey guys. I can't put this any other way. I'm not continuing this.

It's not that I don't have time - but my life's being reworked right now, finally finding a direction.

So for that, I need to shed as many things as I can. Gaming, internet, that sort of thing. Because of that I cannot continue this fic, and I apologise to all who followed with anticipation and appreciation for it.

However, I thank you all for reading and for all your reviews. Looking at the last chapter, I feel f it had to end anywhere, this point is as good as any. Souji's budding feelings for Chie, yet being pessimistic about it, is a bit of a somber way to end it all, but if you treat it like a kind of accompaniment to Matching Wristbands, you already know how they end up - hooked up and happy.

Thank you all for reading and for your support! Chie still rocks!


	11. Return

Hi guys. Guess who's back?

I wasn't intending to continue this, but after having sorted my life out in a much more meaningful way (see "10. Final" the previous chapter for more info on that), I find that I can go back to it. Going back to this might've been weakness on my part had I come back earlier, too attached to Persona and this pairing, but now I can come back with enough detachment and yet also passion and diligence to continue.

Keep in mind though, I might put an end to this again if I feel it reaches a proper conclusion or if I have to simplify my life again for practical reasons, and updates may be sporadic. But I do feel like I was somewhat settling for less when I ended this the way it did.

So, to all who've read and liked this story, and to all the Souji/Chie shippers, I can't say I'll go on till the end of the game, but I thank you for all your past support in reads, views and reviews, and for all your continued support even now.

I want to dedicate a special thanks to True-InTha-Blue, who liked this fic so much that they were even willing to offer to continue writing it in my stead. Also thanks to The Fool's Folly by Pegashush. I was reading this fic while writing the new chapter, and it put a smile on my face to find a similar Chie/Souji POV fic out there, and to see a Souji/Chie shipper.

Anyway, that's it from me. Let's continue, as far or as short as it may go, and please enjoy the story.


	12. Chapter 9: Stupid Green-coat Girl

It's really weird that the principal called for an assembly all of a sudden, and right in the middle of the day. Did something happen? It can't be about what everyone's been whispering about earlier this morning, could it...?

"Hey... Did you see it yesterday?"

I heard Misaki in front of me, talking to a girl I recognised from the next class. Misaki was to my right so I couldn't see her face. I decided not to focus on it and took advantage of the other people still settling in, taking out my phone. I didn't see Yukiko at all today, so I gave her a quick text.

_Hey Yukiko. U not comin today? Just asking_

I still heard those two talking while I typed. "Of course not..." said the girl from the other class. "What, is that rumour for real?"

"I dunno," replied Misaki, a little too enthusiastic. "But it seems like a lot of people have seen it."

The principal had already stepped onto the stage, and still no reply from Yukiko. I gave up for now, voicing my displeasure to myself.

"Yukiko said she'd be here after lunch..." I snapped my phone shut and pocketed it away. "I wonder why they're holding a school assembly all of a sudden."

I took a peek behind me, and the assembly hall looks packed already. Then, I saw Yosuke, and he looked _horrible_. Looked really nervous and not at all there.

"...Hey, what's wrong, Yosuke?" I waved my hand in front of him to catch his attention.

He snapped out of it, but only briefly enough to acknowledge me. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing..."

Sofue-sensei finally spoke through the mic. "Everyone, please settle down. The school assembly is about to begin." She sounded really serious, completely different from how she was yesterday... She moved over for the school principal. "First, the Principal has something to say."

The Principal never really stood out compared to the other teachers, and the teachers _do_ get pretty weird around here. His name was Koshibaki, but everyone loved to call him Merlin-sensei because of his long, scraggly beard. He didn't mind - he was always quiet and pleasant to us youngsters. Today though, like Sofue-sensei, he looked dead serious.

"I... regret to say that I have a terrible announcement for all of you." His voice, old and aged, echoed throughout the hall, which would be perfectly normal if it weren't for his dreary tone and his words. I could feel the whole hall and everyone inside hold their breath.

"One of our third-year students, Ms. Saki Konishi of Class 3...

"Has passed away."

"Passed away...?!" I immediately said out loud the same time it was drowned out by the noise of everyone in the hall bursting out in conversation with each other. I also immediately thought about Yosuke, but was way too scared to turn back and see what he'd look like. I felt a bad vibe coming from behind me already.

Koshibaki-sensei tried to calm things down by continuing, his voice a little frantic and worried at all the commotion. "Ms. Konishi was found deceased early this morning... The reasons behind her passing are currently under investigation by the police."

He raised his voice, the noise all throughout the hall only calming down by half. "If they ask you for your cooperation, I _urge_ you as students of this school to provide _only_ the facts." When it looked like his words weren't working, he became more direct. "Alright, please quiet down..."

He continued. "I have been assured by the faculty that there's been no evidence that _bullying_ was involved in the incident. So mind what you say, not only to the police but to anyone who asks..."

"Found dead...?" I thought out loud. Is this really happening? That announcer lady's murder is one thing, but if _another_ murder shows up... then this isn't a one-off freak event. This could turn up again, and now that it's involved someone right in our school, in the future it could be _anyone. _I couldn't believe it. "How could this happen...?" I voiced again, still trying to swallow this mess.

I decided to chance it and inch my head slowly to look behind me at Yosuke, who was behind Misaki as she continued chatting away. He looked... really serious. His stare was literally boring a hole into the ground.

Koshibaki-sensei continued his address, but I couldn't be bothered to hear the rest. I selfishly thought that my day has been officially ruined now, but to even think of what could be going through Yosuke's head right now, not even to mention Saki-senpai's family...

* * *

No one seemed to be able to concentrate on the lessons afterward, but judging by the low spirits Satonaka and particularly Hanamura were in, some were coping better than others... Most were just too busy gossiping to bother with the lesson.

Missing Hanamura right after classes ended, I met up with Satonaka, who was looking pretty down. This was a serious enough matter to lay my petty issues regarding my perception of her aside, so I agreed with her to walk home together, more for her sake than for mine; she looked pretty distraught.

By the time we reached the bottom floor, we overheard some girls - one of whom I recognised as one of our classmates - talking about the news earlier today. Though really, it's what everyone's been talking about, even this morning before the announcement, when I heard other girls talking about seeing police cars.

"She died the same way as that announcer, right? That's so creepy..."

"Well, last time, it was from an antenna, but this time she was hanging from a telephone pole. It's gotta be a serial murder case..." The other girl with her replied.

"Someone said the cause of death was some unknown poison."

How delightfully morbid.

"Unknown...? C'mon, this isn't some sci-fi drama." The other girl quickly took a somewhat playful tone to her loud voice.

We were just kind of standing there, and those two girls talking didn't notice us at all. I looked over to Satonaka, not wanting her to notice me doing so, and I could see she was visibly fuming. Or more like simmering in anger that might inevitably lead to a fuming.

"Oh, by the way, did you hear? Someone saw a girl that looked like Saki on that Midnight Channel thingie." The girl then kept her voice low. "They said she totally looked like she was in pain. Isn't that scary?"

I was taken away from their conversation by the sight of Satonaka crossing my vision. She took a step forward. A very heavy, imposing step. I caught a glimpse of her biting her lip. She was obviously going to say something at the very least, or punch their lights out at the worst. I was going to stop her, but she stopped at that first step, holding herself back.

The first girl giggled. "Sounds like someone had a nightmare." She waved her arm in dismissal as they both walked off - out of reach from Satonaka, thankfully for them. She still talked in the distance. "The media's been broadcasting their interviews with her nonstop, so maybe they just had Saki on the brain.

After they've disappeared from sight through one of the doorways leading outside, Satonaka didn't even bother to hide her anger and stamped the hardwood floor with her foot, her brow heavy upon her eyes. "Sheesh, it's easy to toss around theories if you're not personally involved..."

We heard some lone footsteps behind us, so we instinctively turned around and found Hanamura, having gone somewhere else alone since classes ended. I was expecting him to look more depressed after his condition during the announcement and in class afterward, and he did still look out of it, but there was a certain stiffness to his posture and the way he crossed his arms. No, stiff wasn't the right word... He was firm.

He looked at us both straight in the eyes. "Hey... Did you guys check out the TV last night?"

Satonaka immediately flared up, not having cooled down from just now. "Yosuke! Not you too!"

"Just listen for a sec!" Hanamura snapped back, louder. "Something kept bothering me, so... I watched it again, and..."

Hanamura gave out a long, hard breath before he continued. "I think the girl on the screen... was Saki-senpai."

Did he mean the same girl we all saw that night? I looked over to Satonaka, and the worry is apparent in her eyes. Now that he mentioned it, Konishi _did_ resemble the girl on that Midnight Channel broadcast... but I didn't want to bank on it, assuming that I'm just being biased because of what I'm being presented now. I'm a bit worried that this might be the case for Hanamura too, who's obviously _way_ more emotionally involved than I am in this...

"There's no mistaking it. Senpai looked like... she was writhing in pain... And then, she disappeared from the screen," he elaborated, his tone grim.

"What...?" Satonaka managed to just barely voice out. I don't want to think Hanamura is just seeing what he wants to see, but it's all too possible at his current state...

"You heard Senpai's body was found in a similar situation as that announcer's, right...?" he continued. "Well, remember that guy you told us about?" He held his focus onto Satonaka this time. "How he was all excited that his soulmate was the announcer?"

I wanted to find an opening to try and reason him out of it, but he really looked so determined and uneasy at the same time that I felt reluctant, though it was what he sorely needed.

But something else crept in, a realisation, and it began to overtake my reasoning. I still kept my face neutral though.

"Maybe... Just maybe, but..." He looked over to me, seeing that Satonaka didn't look like she was going to buy it. "Ms. Yamano might've been on that Midnight Channel before she died, too."

I knew it.

"What's that supposed to mean...?" Satonaka said shortly before realisation swept across her face, the idea taking root in her as well. "Hold on. Are you saying...? People who appear on that TV... die?"

A chill spiked right down my spine like lightning. I never gave much thought to it, mostly due to my own insistence on shutting them out in the first place, but the bear's words from when we were trapped in that TV world ring clearly in my head now. That one-off line about throwing people in... That must've been what Hanamura remembered and picked up on as well.

Hanamura shaked his head, his posture getting less tense now, but only by a little. "I can't say for sure. But something tells me... I just can't dismiss it as coincidence."

Satonaka clearly wants to add in something, but no words escape her mouth. I would've said something as well if it wasn't for that little trip to Wonderland that day throwing all reason out of the window for me...

"Plus, remember what that bear thing said?" Hanamura added, confirming my earlier suspicions. "How that place was dangerous, and we should leave before the fog clears?" He nodded his head, as if he's further affirming his own thoughts as he said them. "It also said that someone's been throwing people in there. And that room with the posters on the wall... It has to have something to do with the announcer's death."

He looked over to me, much more intently now. "I mean... don't you think there's some kind of connection there? Couldn't that world in the TV have something to do with Senpai and the announcer's death?!"

His last words ring throughout the long, empty corridor. Only three of us are left there, long after everyone had gone. Long after everyone had gone home and went on with their normal lives, closing their eyes and hoping this all would boil over and go away.

Seeing where this was going, I sorely wished to be in that situation as well.

"Well...?" He kept his lips tight, hopeful. "What do you think...?"

Satonaka was looking to me as well, waiting for my conclusion. This couldn't be happening.

I really wanted to just go home and sleep right now. Never had I wished for a more boring day to happen to me as I did in that moment. But I couldn't handle my stupid part of me telling me not to ignore it. Memories of that Igor's words and this "misfortune at your destination" and "a great mystery will be imposed upon you"... Those words echo in my head like thunder and feel like a tonne of bricks.

Yeah, no kidding on the "imposed on you" bit, you stupid long-nosed, dream-invading prick. I didn't need this. I didn't _want_ this.

But for the life of me, I couldn't stand still and live it down if I said no. I used to be so good at it, too - at saying no. At playing the fool and avoiding tragedies.

What's happening to me...?

I kept my head down in defeat, and every word that comes out takes several metric tonnes of strength not to hold back.

"You might be right," I finally say, marking the start of my slow death here.

Hanamura's eyes light up almost instantly upon hearing my words. Good that someone's happy about it.

"...So it's not just me, huh?" he says. The relief in his voice is almost palpable. He continues, a newfound energy in his speech. "If there is a connection, then it's a good bet that the two of them went inside that world."

Crazy theories already. There's no way I can back out now. Doesn't help that Satonaka looks like I just simultaneously slapped her in the face _and_ made the most foolish mistake of my life.

"That would explain the posters in the room," Hanamura goes on, head down in contemplation, caught up in his deductions now that he's been given free rein. "Which means..."

He looks up. "...If we look around, we might find a place that has something to do with Senpai, too."

Satonaka shook her head, almost unconsciously apparently. "Yosuke, don't tell me..."

Hanamura gives a single firm nod of his head in her direction, resolute. "Yeah..." He looks to me now.

"I'm thinking of going back in again. I want to find out for myself."

Satonaka takes a step towards him, her face painted with plainly apparent and genuine worry. "D-Don't do this... You should just let the police handle this and-"

Hanamura takes a step himself, darting forward and waving his arms in incredulity. "You think we can rely on the police?!" His view constantly switches between the both of us. "They haven't made any progress on the announcer's case. Besides, even if we told them about the world inside the TV, there's no way they're gonna believe us!"

His expression contorts, and the sight of it makes me reel. It's that of tearless anguish. Of helplessness. Of loss.

Damn it all.

"If I'm completely off-base with this, that's fine..." he mutters. "It's just... I need to know why Senpai had to die like this."

"Oh, Yosuke..." Satonaka frowns the saddest frown I've yet seen, her arms close to herself, and her voice overflows with unconcealed concern.

Hanamura breathes in deeply, then lets it out. "After what I've seen and what I've put together, there's no way I can ignore it now." He shuffled step by step towards me, and looked at me, the weakness showing in his firmly squared shoulders and a pleading look all too apparent in his eyes.

"Sorry... but you're the only person who can help me." He breaks eye contact and lowers his head. "Trust me, if I didn't have to involve you, I wouldn't, especially since you barely know us... but... you're my only chance..."

Hanamura looks up again, trying to contain whatever composure he can. "I'm gonna get ready. I'll be waiting at Junes."

And with that, Hanamura turned to leave straight out. Satonaka and I were alone in the corridor now.

"I can kinda understand how he feels..." Satonaka said, turning to me. A tiny hint of frustration shows through her voice. "But we can't be sure we'll be able to get out safely again. What should we do...?" She said that last bit looking right at me before trailing off and staring off to the doors through which Hanamura left.

I think it's fairly obvious what we should do. Talk him out of it when we meet him at Junes.

But I couldn't say that. I couldn't muscle my damn mouth into saying that. And now Satonaka turned her attention back to me, seemingly waiting for my answer.

"Seta-kun?" She says, probably thinking I didn't hear her. I looked at her, indicating that I was. She looks up to me, her mouth a thin line ending downwards in an uneasy frown. She closed her eyes and let out a defeated sigh, throwing her arms up.

"Look, I don't know why you agreed with Yosuke back there, but this is just crazy!" she said further, straightening her posture and taking a step closer to me. I took a step back. "This is just too much for us!"

"You're right," I immediately said, catching her a little off guard. The tenseness of her brow began to relax. "We're in over our heads," I said further.

"Yeah, exactly!" she said in resounding agreement. "That's why we gotta-"

"But I'm still going with him."

Satonaka froze. "Y-You serious...?" She then got angry after registering that in its full implication. "A-Are you stupid or something?! Not you too!"

"Look, Satonaka..." I looked away and shuffled towards the lockers, not wanting to face her. "I..." I fumbled, but still managed somehow. "I have to. I have to go with him. I just don't know why. If you don't want to come, then I'm obviously not going to stop yo-"

"No!" I glanced at her, and though she was seething, she definitely looked like she was holding back. "I thought you're smarter than this, Seta-kun!" She gestures towards the doorway where Yosuke left. "If Yosuke feels like he has a stake in this, that's one thing! What does this have to do with you?!"

I placed one hand on one of the lockers and leaned against it. "Satonaka, please... I just..."

"Is this some kinda game to you?!" She strides right up to me, her voice shaky. "To just throw your life away in some alien place you just moved into?"

"Then what?" I replied, keeping my voice deliberately low, but it was taking more and more effort not to just lash out at her. "We just leave Hanamura to die in there?"

"That's why we gotta talk him out of it!" she quickly snapped back, sending a pang of displeasure into me. "But nooo, you want to jump in with him into that sick place! Is there literally nothing in your life you value?"

...Yes.

"_No._" I said, firmly. "You don't even know me. I have my reasons..."

"Oh?" she said, in a tone so sarcastic it makes me want to slam a hole in the locker my hand was on, almost even in substitute of her. "Well let's hear it!"

"You won't believe me," I snapped back. "I barely do myself."

"I see then!" I caught a glance of her crossing her arms, like a disapproving parent. "That's a good enough reason to get killed then, right?"

"Get off my back, Satonaka," I hissed, biting the inside of my lip right afterwards. Weariness began to register much larger than my anger, though my anger was far from subsiding, instead eventually mixing together with the weariness as well, welling and festering into defeat and frustration. Over all this. This crap. This contract, this Igor, this obligation, this stupid life in this stupid town with its stupid murders and stupid school and stupid teachers and stupid laughter and stupid jokes and stupid chivalry for this stupid, _stupid_ overbearing green-coat girl.

With her stupid smile and her stupid hair... her stupid eyes and stupid voice and laugh... and every time she talks to me, she keeps reminding me that I'm in the middle of all this stupidity. That I'm not dreaming, but awake and living in the gravity well of this stupid life. She reminds me that I exist, in the most frustrating ways possible, with...

With her stupid concern, and worry, and care... for this sorry excuse of a human being... here today and gone the next, never having to give an answer, and not able to give one now.

...

* * *

Seta didn't say anything for a while. I was about to tear him a new one again, but when I saw his face, I stopped myself. I could already tell he was simmering just now, and to be honest, I wanted him to boil over and shout at me. Maybe then I could get an honest answer out of him, instead of all of this "You wouldn't believe me even if I told you" bullcrap. We fell through a TV and talked to a balloon bear - does he think I'm a stupid idiot?!

But then, he began to calm down. His features started to soften, and before long, while just now he was hunched over at the lockers, he now stood straight up; and while he did so, he looked at me.

The look he gave me was so unexpected, it took any and all words I wanted to say out of my mouth. It couldn't have been even for two seconds, but that look... it's so hard to explain. But at that moment, whatever he was so cryptic and reluctant about sharing... I began to believe he was telling the truth.

It wasn't just sadness, but something much more subtle, much more complex. If that look was just sad, I wouldn't have felt so... different when he gave me that look. But- and I'm most likely crazy and reading too much into it...

It was a look that felt like it was completely concentrated onto me. Like I suddenly became a target, and every kind of thing and thought that was going through his head merged together into a single expression that he shot straight at me... straight _into_ me.

And I was afraid to ask what it was. What it was that formed the embodiment of all those thoughts, and why I now stood in the center of it. I just gave a sigh, feeling pretty rotten now.

"Sorry," I said, meaning it. "I shouldn't have pretended I knew. Even though it doesn't make sense. But if you have a reason..."

I struggled with my words, but finally gave in. "...Then I want to give you... the benefit of the doubt."

What I wasn't expecting was Seta to suddenly let out a very audible breath. Like he was trying to contain his emotions, and what I said had just put the last bit of pressure on the bottle. Did I say something wrong...? I couldn't have. His head was turned away, and I couldn't read his face.

"What is it now?" I said, too curious to let it be. "You didn't want to hear that?"

I froze. I was not ready for it. He gave me that look again.

"I did," he said, parting his lips. "And at the same time... I don't."

I was taken aback. Just what was he getting at? "What do you mean?" I said, a little worried now.

"It's nothing," he said. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, till it was steady and unnoticeably normal. "Okay, no. More precisely, nothing yet." He looked back at me, and his facial expression was much more neutral now. "I know you won't leave me alone till I tell you. So I'm just asking you... to wait."

He started combing his hair with his hand absentmindedly, running his fingers through his silver head. "Can you do that?" He paused, and his tone became serious, and yet also oddly tender. "...Please."

I stayed silent... and pretty cautious. And more than a little confused. "...Fair enough."

Both of us stood looking at each other's general direction for a while, though Seta wasn't standing facing me, a little off-center because he was leaning on the shoe lockers. I wriggled my feet and toes in my loafers.

"Anyway, let's go to Junes," I finally said. "We can't leave Yosuke alone..."

Seta gave a silent nod of agreement, and we both left together.

I was right about what I said, but what I began to be afraid of - or actually, more like concerned - was that whatever Seta was going through is gonna be a lot deeper than maybe even Yosuke's. Yosuke's issue is serious, that's for sure, but we've known each other long enough that there's really not much surprises with him. With Seta, it's like _everything's_ a surprise with him, and every new day is just revealing more and more about this mysterious transfer student that I've never expected anything much from when I first saw him, with his popped collar and silver hair...

It simultaneously made me really nervous, a little scared of the unknown, and... really drawn to him.

Am I being a stupid girl, getting caught up with some boy I didn't know anything about, and seems like bad news the moment he walked in?

...Yes. I am. And I could possibly- no, _most likely_ get myself into trouble. I may crash and burn if I continued like this, and get my heart broken to a point that it'll be near-impossible to heal or repair, and for the first time, I seriously questioned my determination in finding out about this guy. My stubbornness and gung-ho normal self suddenly stopped at this line, and was seriously considering whether to take that important step over this line or not, from which I might not be able to turn back just from sheer momentum and settled decision.

Seta... you're dangerous. And unknown. I'm not sure if I want to make that jump until... until I know who you really are.

Until then, I'm relieved I'm not going into this completely blind. I'm still stupid enough to want to know you more. But I'm also hopefully smart enough now... to also tread lightly.

After all, you'd have to be a pretty messed up guy in the first place to be this nice to Chie Satonaka, right? Or at least that's the stupid little thing I tell myself.

Or will you... prove me wrong again? I admit, I was never that smart to begin with...

...Which is why I kinda hope you do.


	13. Update

Hey guys, it's been a very long time since an update, and especially after I revived this fic, I'm sure a lot of you got your hopes up, so I'm very sorry that I had to make you guys wait, but I better address it now, even though it feels a lot like deja vu.

I've been busy with a lot of stuff lately, mostly art. I mostly draw and make my own stories, and writing and fanfiction has been a side endeavour, so I have been leaving it aside in favour of my art projects. So I'm very sorry for leaving you guys hanging all these months, but I really cannot guarantee another update to this or to my fanfictions in general, as I wanna focus more on my art. I'm just sorry that I have to disappoint you twice.

Anyways, it's been fun guys, and I thank you all for your reviews, reads and subscriptions. You guys definitely helped me plow through in all my fics and definitely in my skills as a writer and storyteller. I am grateful for all your support. But until next time, I'll see you around. Maybe an update will surface out of the blue, but I really can't say for sure. I'll be on tumblr and such, links in my profile.

Thank you!


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